Yorkshire Men's League Division Two: Keighley Albion 17 Allerton Bywater 8

AFTER suffering a crushing defeat to York the previous weekend, Albion bounced back with a strong team effort.

Still with nine regulars missing and captain Chris Price pulling out on the day due to work commitments, Keighley had to stand tall - and they did.

It took 15 minutes to break the deadlock with a passing move by Albion backs Col Pickles and Conner Meegan, which put Ben Benfield in at the corner.

The sides then cancelled each other out with some strong defence, Dan Jamieson tackling everything in sight on his first-team debut.

Allerton made it 4-4 by half-time and then caught the Albion defence asleep with a try to take an early second-half lead.

This woke Keighley up, spurred on by Chris Spencer and Gary Boocock. Liam Kelly, who stood in for Price at the last minute, had a great game and scored on the 60 minute mark to bring the game level.

Tempers flared as Boocock was taken out of the firing line by Albion coach Andy Stokes. Keighley took the lead when they broke Allerton's defensive line as Pickles went over to make it 12-8.

Jamieson had to leave the pitch for the blood bin as Danny Bowness came on to steady the ship.

Seeing an opportunity to run the clock down, Bowness put a great drop goal over from acting half. This seemed to deflate Allerton.

With Boocock now calm and relaxed from his rest on the sidelines, he came back on to finish off Allerton and make up for his earlier mistakes with the final try to complete a great team effort.

Stand-in captain Alex Young kept the back line solid with opposition man of the match Pickles running the backs and players' award winners Spencer leading the forwards.

Jack Atkinson also made a welcome return after finishing his union season with Keighley RUFC.

Albion have no game this weekend but are holding a fundraising event at Crossflatts on Sunday featuring six-a-side cricket, a barbecue and bouncy castles.