Allerton 18 Keighley Albion 14

DESPITE fine performances from Anthony Chapman, Chris Spencer and Finley Meegan, Keighley Albion let a 14 point lead slip away to Allerton on Saturday as they struggled in a 13 v 13 contest in the second half.

Albion went into the match with a young looking side that included speedster Josh Tenniswood and the dynamic Bobby Darbyshire.

It was Albion who had the better start, keeping Allerton pinned and frustrated in their own half, and after 25 minutes Meegan broke the deadlock with a penalty goal to keep his 100% kicking record intact.

The away side's forwards were winning the collisions and as a direct result, the home team gave away consecutive penalties. Soon after, they had two players sent to the sin bin for holding down.

With a two player advantage, Albion soon registered the first try when tough tackling forward Chapman forced his way over the line. Meegan added the extras to make it 8-0 on the half hour mark.

With their confidence high, Albion marched straight back up the field where player-coach Andrew Stokes gave a nice pass to Alex Young and the full back did the rest.

It looked like Allerton were going to go into the half-time break 14-0 down, but a mixture of contentious refereeing decisions and soft defending gifted them a try right on the whistle.

As the home side started the second half with a full 13 players, it was Albion that started to struggle and Allerton started to claw the score back from them, eventually taking the lead.

With five minutes remaining, it looked like the lively Darbyshire had snatched the win for Albion, as he dived on to neat kick, but the referee spotted an infringement.

The result sees Albion narrowly miss out on victory for a second week in succession, which will be a source of frustration given the commanding lead that they had built up in this game.