Keighley Albion u-12s 20 Drighlington u-12s 8

ALBION continued their return to winning ways with a superb performance against Yorkshire Division Two front-runners Drighlington.

The game plan was all about set completion going up the slope, although they were indebted to the scintillating speed of Billy Lee for his cover tackle on Drighlington’s dangerous centre.

Albion opened the scoring when Caleb McConville’s cross kick was spilled and James Sabin fed Lee, who burst clear down the line.

More strong running laid the platform for Reece Smollen to use his trademark show-and-go to splinter the visitors defence and sprint clear to score, giving Josh Dickerson a simple conversion to put the hosts 10-0 up at half-time.

With injuries to Smollen and Evan Jones, Albion briefly lost shape and Drighlington hit them with two sucker punches, bringing them to within two points. But Keighley’s strong running and defence, led superbly by Ben McParland, saw them regain territory. Fittingly it was opposition man of the match McParland who collected the ball on a great angle and carried a number of would-be tacklers over the line with him, McConville adding the extras.

There was still time for some more great interplay which set up Smollen again to skip round the cover defenders to confirm victory for Albion.

Keighley Albion u-14s 24 Normanton Knights u-14s 14

Keighley completed an early season double over strugglers Knights but it was not all plain sailing.

They caught the visitors cold with two tries in the opening five minutes by Xander McConville, before Ciaran Bartlett’s run from half-way made it 16-0.

Normanton, to their credit, didn’t buckle, scoring their first try just before half-time. However, Callum Smith’s measured long pass to the wing enabled Will Hartley to restore the home side’s advantage.

But the Albion defence switched off to allow two Normanton tries and the game was suddenly in the balance with ten minutes to go.

It was then that a flowing cross-field passing movement ended in Ben Shaw touching down to make the game safe. Match awards went to Alex Downes, Hartley and McConville.