"WE can't complain about the pitch," laughed veteran front-rower John Thwaite after his North Ribblesdale team had been the first visitors to use Keighley's artificial grass pitch and lost 50-7.

A seventh straight defeat left Ribb still bottom of the Yorkshire One table, with just the losing bonus point that they had earned in a 13-9 setback at Wheatley Hills on the opening day of the season.

However, Thwaite is far from despondent as they prepare to face Selby on Saturday at Grove Park.

He said: "We were missing two players at Sam Boatwright's wedding blessing on Saturday and we were missing five players the week before at James Dugdale's wedding.

"We have a players' meeting coming up. It is not a crisis meeting, it is just a meeting to see whether we are heading in the right direction and to see if anything needs changing.

"But we are a young side, the spirit is good and I have known the spirit having been worse when we have been winning."

Not even the remnants of Storm Brian could prevent Keighley from christening their artificial grass pitch in style.

They ran in eight tries, five of which were converted by fly half Alex Brown, against understrength visitors.

Playing at a high tempo, Keighley created space on the right for winger Jack Atkinson to score his first try, and his second followed in the 19th minute.

Left winger Joe Copperwaite also got in on the act in the 29th minute with a try on a plate after good work by Dan Snowden and Adam Horsfall.

Brown converted the middle try superbly into a wind that constantly seemed to be shifting and the visitors had featured little in a half in which they trailed 17-0.

Their fly half David Fox's kick-off failed to go ten metres at the start of the second half but they recovered from that bad beginning to score a try by centre Liam Wallbank, which Fox converted.

However, Keighley got the bonus-point try on the hour, replacement Andy Heys barging his way over for Brown to convert.

Ribb tired in the last 20 minutes, often falling off tackles and sometimes falling to the floor.

Keighley cashed in with tries for replacement back Alan Ebbrell in the 69th minute, Atkinson's third in the 77th minute, Copperwaite's second in the 80th minute and full back Alfie Seeley with the last play of the match a minute into stoppage time.