Apologies for not adding any blogs for a few days, with travel from France, limited availability of internet and then a health problem to contend with I haven't had chance to comment much on the RL scene until now.
Tonight's Championship game deserved a better score than the eventual 40-20 win for Halifax. For me Keighley Cougars were much closer than that and had the games outstanding player in former Fax junior Danny Jones. Not only did he continue his consecutive point scoring run to 40 games, he was also at the hub of everything for the visitors and was desperately unlucky to end on the losing side.
Keighley took the lead through Jon Presley before James Haley and the boot of Lee Paterson put Fax in front. Although Jones levelled matters for Keighley with a penalty, a two try scoring burst from the hosts saw Stanley Gene and Rob Worrincy.
Leading 16-6 at half-time Fax looked to take advantage of a mistake by Keighley from the kick-off, however it was the Cougars and Tom Burton that scored next. Sean Penkywicz then went in for the hosts before former Halifax prop Andy Shickell touched down an astute Jones kick to close the gap to 22-16.
This seemed to spark Halifax and it was the hosts that scored the next three tries through Dylan Nash, Steve Bannister and Paterson, who finished a length of the field move and also added six goals. Keighley did have the last word however when Jones spun a pass to James Haythornthwaite and the teenager cleverly avoided a tackle to twist over in the final minute.
Over the Easter period, Keighley have come alive in the Championship. After starting the league season with minus nine points and a big loss to Widnes, they have steadily got better and after earning a credible draw with Sheffield on Good Friday, things got better on Easter Monday with a 42-10 defeat of fellow promoted team Dewsbury Rams. When you take these two results and the Halifax game into consideration when the Cougars really did deserve a bonus point for their tenacity in defeat, it suggests that the previous thought of Keighley returning to Championship One may not happen if they can continue with these types of performances.
Halifax still don't look like the team they were. After losing to Hunslet in the Northern Rail Cup they conceded 40 point defeats to Leigh and Featherstone, they put 50 on Toulouse and then laboured to this win. I don't know quite what is going on at the Shay but they will have to get their FAX right soon!
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