Keighley Cougars 10 Workington Town 19: Keighley’s season is not over just yet, says coach Demetriou after defeat

Keighley failed to make the most of home advantage and will have beat Rochdale at home next weekend if they are to convert second place in the final table into a Championship One Grand Final appearance.

The Cougars squandered the opportunity to move within 80 minutes of promotion by making far too many errors against a well-drilled Workington team that carved out a 17-0 advantage during the first 50 minutes and rarely looked like letting it slip.

Player-coach Jason Demetriou engineered both of the tries that hauled the Cougars back into the game but couldn’t hide his anger at the way his side performed.

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“We gave away far too much ball and our discipline was rubbish and as a result we lost,” he said. “The season’s not over – we’ve got another chance – but we are going to have to play a lot better than we did today.”

Despite having the lion’s share of possession and territorial supremacy the Cougars went into the break without anything to show for it and 13 points adrift.

Clinical finishing earned the Cumbrians two converted tries, from Neil Frazer and Elliot Miller, in the opening 20 minutes.

Veteran Darren Holt kicked both goals and added an drop goal five minutes before the interval then, within six minutes of the restart, Frazer crossed again to make it 17-0 to Town.

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Back to back penalties finally helped Cougars onto the scoreboard with Craig Moss darting onto Demetriou’s perfectly timed pass and then converting his own try.

Holt added a penalty from in front of the posts, to again give the visitors a three-score cushion, and although the Cougars hit back swiftly, when Demetriou and Moss combined again on the hour, Chris Baines missed the touchline conversion and the gap proved too big for Keighley to close.

Keighley: Moss, Duffy, Sagar, Normington, Halley, Demetriou, Smith, Shickell, Feather, Law, Cartledge, Pursglove, Baines. Substitutes: Wray, Benjafield, Rawlins, Jones.

Workington: Carter, Miller, Mossop, Low Frazer, Holt, Kaighan, Coward, Ulstrom, Armistead, Whitehead, McKenna, Stack. Substitutes: Bainbridge, McGoff, Clough, Robinson.

Referee: R Laughton (Barnsley).

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