Workington 35 Keighley Cougars 18: Demetriou left to rue Cougars’ mistakes as Workington triumph

Inconsistency continues to plague Jason Demetriou’s side, who won 20-18 at champions Swinton Lions just last week.

An avalanche of individual errors prevented the Cougars from cementing second spot in Championship One and allowed Workington to pull level on points.

“It was just a case of too many individual errors again,” said player-coach Demetriou.

“Some individuals had good games but we did ourselves no favours and it took its toll in the second half.

“We had spoken about the amount of errors we were making before the game and had done plenty of work in training but it didn’t seem to make a difference,” he said.

Demetriou added: “We were able to get away with the errors at Swinton but we were punished this week.”

Elliott Miller touched down to put the hosts ahead within six minutes, Darren Holt converting, but Keighley did show enough character to hit back through Andy Shickell, Craig Moss adding the extras to restore parity and level the scores.

But Workington always looked more likely to win and edged back in front through Ruairi McGoff, Holt converting.

Will Cartledge grabbed a second for the Cougars, Chris Baines chipping in with the conversion, but Scott Kaighan’s try and Holt’s conversion gave the Cumbrians a half-time lead.

Brett Carter touched down twice in the space of seven minutes to put the hosts in command, Holt improving both, although Demetriou scored to keep his side within touching distance.

It mattered little, Kaighan grabbing his second try to secure the points and send Keighley home defeated.

Workington: Carter, Miller, Mossop, A. Law, Frazer, Holt, Kaighan, Armitstead, Pedley, Coward, Whitehead, McKenna, Stack. Substitutes: Backhouse, McGoff, Olstrum, Clough.

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

Referee: C Halloran (RFL).