Sunday's Coming: Keighley

Sunday sees a game that marks the end of two exiles. The first is that it's the last game of Hornets' six week annual odyssey imposed by the Spotland pitch works.

The other is that - by our calculations -  it's the last game of Cougars' coach Paul March's two month stadium ban imposed after the RFL found him guilty of verbally abusing match officials.

The terms of his ban mean that he cannot be present in the stadium 90 minutes before the kick off at any first or second team Keighley Cougars game, he can only return to the stadium 30 minutes after the full time whistle, and he is not allowed to communicate with his team or staff during the game.

Wax on, wax off - Paul March's new viewpoint today

Having seen the ban upheld despite an appeal, March has found an interesting work-around.

"It's not so bad when we're at home because I've got a viewing point outside the ground," March said. "At the back of the posts there's a petrol station and I can see 90 per cent of the pitch from a fence in the car wash. The frustrating thing is that I can see things going on and I can't do anything about it because I can't communicate with the bench."

So expect to see him gazing forlornly through the fence on Sunday.

This week Ross Heppenstall - Bradford Bulls reporter for the Argus and the Keighley News, who also covers the Cougars - described Keighley as: "… well placed in eighth spot heading into Sunday’s home clash with lowly Rochdale."

Whilst he's clearly a patronising bastard soured by watching too much of lowly Bradford's slow Super League suicide, sitting comfortably with an 8 & 8 record - plus four of those elusive bonus points - Keighley do have the feel of a club that's got to grips with Championship life, and has acquired the nous that enables them to not only find ways to win, but more importantly to 'lose well'.

Keighley come into Sunday's game buoyed by a cheeky 13 point win at fast-fading Sheffield who, incidentally, have won only two home league games at Owlerton -  the Whitebank of the Championship. Danny Jones with the late drop goal to deny Sheffield the bonus point.

Indeed the win was engineered by Jones and his half-back partner, the redoubtable Paul Handforth, who provided ample opportunity for Cougars' jumbo-sized pack to wreak havoc. So a clear danger there.

Hornets can take confidence from last week's game at Halifax. Take three freakish long-range tries out of the equation and the game was pretty even, Hornets showing the graft and determination that takes you a long way - but boy, do teams hit your errors hard at this level …

Sunday provides a great opportunity to tee-up our return to Spotland with a morale-boosting performance, so let's get over there in numbers and hope we can all top-up our tans on the popular side at Lawkholme Lane.

See you Sunday - bring your singing voice.

Keighley - Parking Warning

If you're heading over on Sunday, a friendly word of warning from BurleyCougar on parking around the ground. He/she says: " If you happen to park at the Bottom end of the ground (Opposite the McDonalds end ) please DO NOT park on any of the side roads that lead off the main road (Royd Ings Avenue) as a few of them are private roads , if you park there you will get ticketed. They turn up after kick off and pounce, have lost track of the amount of tickets they have dished out this season. Also anti-Cougars parking are the following: Retail park behind K.F.C., the swimming pool further back from ground on Hard Ings Road and the Carpetright just after petrol station on same side of ground. There is plenty of parking on the main road at bottom end of ground (Royd ings Avenue) and there is a club car park about 50 yards from the bottom turnstiles"

So now you know.


Official RFL Preview
Keighley Cougars coach Paul March is preparing for the penultimate game of his two-month stadium ban on Sunday.

Cougars host struggling Rochdale Hornets, who have lost their last seven games, just seven days after an impressive victory against Sheffield Eagles.

But Rochdale coach Ian Talbot insists his side can halt their recent run of form, having been encouraged by last week’s 42-24 defeat against Halifax.

Talbot said: “There were big signs of improvement in that game, and at 55 minutes the game was there for the taking.”

Hornets expect to have Ryan Millard available after a recent knee injury, with Talbot reporting no new concerns in his squad.

He added: “Keighley are hitting a bit of form and it’s never easy to go to Cougar Park.

“They’ve got experience across the park, with Danny Jones and Paul Handforth steering them well and Richie Barnett is always a threat out wide.

“We’ve just go to take each game as it comes and just worry about ourselves and the challenges in front of us.”

Confidence is a Preference...

Halifax 42 - Hornets 24

Confidence is an ephemeral thing. We spoke here last week about finding ways to 'lose well', and - despite the result at the Shay - this was an old-skool battling performance from a Hornets side that sometimes finds it hard to believe in its own abilities.

In marked contrast to recent weeks, Hornets began in solid style. The early  exchanges were tight, but it was Hornets looking the more eager.

In just the second minute a high kick launched into 'Fax's left corner saw Shaun Robinson wrestle the winger for possession on the home goal line, but Mr Bloem's dubious penalty for offside let Halifax off the hook. And let's not even talk about the 'Fax penalty for holding down two minutes later. Shocker.

On 15 mins, a good spell of Hornets pressure drove Halifax backwards, but James Dandy's last tackle lunge from acting half landed just short. Halifax exhaled and shipped the ball rapidly left through a stretched Hornets line for Divorty to race home on the end of an 80 metre move. Tyrer the two, 6-nil - somewhat against the run of play.

Hornets hit straight back. Again, determined approach work took them close, but Anthony Walker knocked on close to the line and the chance went begging. Adding insult to injury, a poor penalty for offside swept Halifax back downfield. But with Halifax looking to spread the ball wide it took a superb crunching tackle by Shaun Robinson to dump his opposite number into touch. 

This gave Hornets a visible lift. A great exit-set followed by a good kick-chase pinned Fax back. And, having snaffled possession more good approach-work took Hornets close, but they couldn't find the killer-pass to unlock the Fax defence.

But Hornets kept coming. More good error-free approach work, with  a well-placed Crooky kick to push Fax backwards. Under pressure, Fax produced a freak try - a series of finger-tip speculator passes somwhow stuck and Divorty expoited space out wide for a long-range try. Tyrer the 2: 12-0.

On the half-hour some nifty footwork by Holmes set up a three on one on Wayne English, Fieldhouse the beneficiary. Tyrer put the simple kick wide: 16-0

With a shellshocked Hornets now desperately trying to regain their shape, Halifax again busted the line from distance, but fluffed the last pass for a thankful let-off.

Composure regained, Hornets marched straight back upfield where Dave Llewllyn embarked on an arcing, dummying run for a well-taken individual try. Crooky the extras and Hornets batting down the clock to go in at the break 16-6 down.

Hornets began the second half with a bang. With barely a minute on the clock, a break by Alex McClurg saw him step into open field and slot Lewis Sheridan in by the posts. No mistake from Crooky, 16-12. Game on.

Hornets were now playing with confidence and, on 44 mins, a terrific exchange of passes had Halifax in all sorts of trouble, but the last pass from Wayne English to Danny Davis was deemed forward by the eagle-eyed former Halifax player Mr Bloem to maintain his former club's lead.

Having played their get-out-of-jail card, Halifax exploited a stretched Hornets line to go up the other end to send Ambler in. They repeated the feat six minutes later - Mr Bloem noiticeably less concerned with the two 'flat' passes in the build-up. A poor spell from the ref: Halifax 28-12 up.

Hornets got back in the game on the hour when good passing up the left Channel saw Paul Crook score a terrific try off a neat Stuart Littler pass. He celebrated his 1000 points by smacking home the conversion and Hornets were back in the chase at 28-18. But an almost immediate lapse of concentration saw Hornets fumble the ball under their own posts. 'Fax took full advantage, working the ball around until a big hole appeaed, through which Divorty cavorted to score: 32-18.

But this wasn't a day for lying down. On 68 minutes Chris Baines was launched exocet-style off a short-ball to crash through a tangle of defenders to score, Crooky slotted the two and at 32-24 you could hear the home sphincters squeak.

Hornets began to turn the screw, but a 70th minute mystery-penalty for God-knows-what took 'Fax fully 60 metres upfield, where a last tackle kick behind a tiring defence was touched down by Divorty: 36-24.

Hornets sucked-in hard for one last spell of pressure, but the good approach didn't quite have the crucial end-product. Conversely, Halifax launched one last attack where a hopeful kick going nowhere was allowed to bobble one time too many and Adamson got a hand through a crowd of legs to score. FInal score 42-24.

But despair ye not. The disappointment of seeing that elusive Bonus point slip is mitigated by a hard-working, no-frills performance that showed that - when it comes to the crunch - we're really not that far short of competing with sides who have ambitions (and budgets) significantly loftier than ours. Indeed, if Hornets can pull some of the grit, determination and hard-work of this performance into the last third of the season, we may yet surprise some people. Not least ourselves,