Can I just say as a neutral taken to the game by my brother in law (a keighley Fan as we were there for Sunday dinner) I thought it was a pretty decent game, the refereeing was just like any other sunday, with inconsistencies in decisions affecting both sides, although it certainly was not a game you would leave and say that any decision the referee made had been a factor in the result.
There were two turning points in the game, the first one being the introduction of Moore (not sure why he was on the bench) who's kicking game was a vast improvement on the non existent one prior to his introduction, giving Batley greater field position and turning your forwards around every time.
Keighley were bringing the ball back from very deep in their own half set after set. This had a huge effect on the fitness of your forwards in the latter stages of the game on a heavy pitch. The second one for me was the nothing kick by Danny Jones down the left, which gave Batley the field position where they eventually scored from, and immediately after keighley panicked and batley stepped up a gear. Once Batley took the lead,their sturn defence, that they had shown in the early stages came to the fore, and on the back of more punishing field kicks your forwards were dead on their feet and batley closed shop. I thought they nicked the game, when keighley possibly should have held on, but Batley are one of those sides that never go away until the final whistle, and I am sure that they will do the same to other sides this season. Keighley should certainly be around the top 6 though on that showing.

john kears game plan worked with the playing area. he went back to playing one up rugby for 65 minutes and then when you was knackered he let the likes of black,moore throw the ball around and you couldn't cope. i thought semi T got tackled out of the game by his opposite centre walton every time same with korki smith and potter took him down everytime. but i don't how batley were offside everytime and penalty count be so high against us at keighley 7-2 them keighley glasses work well..

I think for 60 mins Cougars bossed the game and deserved to be ahead.

Fitness played a part in them losing it for me. I have faith the Cougars will do alright this season. The Batley fans got a bit excited towards the end, bless them. It was their cup final though.....

To be fair you did give a lot of pens away. I though it was mainly due to the Dogs struggling to cope with the Cougars.
As for the video highlights I didn't bother watching them as I just attended the game.

Minor corrections for accuracy ......

PS You can use capitals and punctuation if you want, it does make things easier to read

bit puzzled at this statement.....batleys cup final ?? against a side that have just come up from Championship one, who they also beat twice the season before once by around 50 points if i recall, won the Northern rail cup, and last season finished around thid or fourth ? and already beaten KC in a pre season friendly ???
have i missed the pun somewhere ???
As I said the forwards had been turned around deep into their own half on countless occassions, and this was a factor in the game. That unfortunately is what coaching is about and I did say before the game i was a little suprised at the amount of halves and hookers in the keighley 17, and March for starters should not have been played instead of a forward.
Fair play to JD, he held his hand up to a very naive mistake, which im sure his former mentor Kear would have picked up on and exploited.

He did admit to being too lightweight in the pack after the game.

I have to admit I was a little surprised when I saw Jy-Mel Coleman on the team sheet at Loose Forward. No disrespect to Jy-Mel, he's a quality half back, but I'd much rather see us use a 3rd prop at 13 over a 3rd half back.

I think his tongue was firmly in his cheek when he posted this.

On the other hand he could have been serious.....

Some Batley fans are getting rather excited by our comments on here and whilst I'm all for a bit of banter, some of them have gone all girly on us. Only time will tell if the keep net gets fuller.

The Batley 1st try was a joke. The ref who collected and thought he deserved his pay for awarding it likewise. A player lands on his ball carrying arm, he is tackled. He can't pass the ball forward then after that. If it could be seen from the other end of the field I don't know how the ref didn't see it as he was stood over it. I wouldn't mind but he continued the rest of the game with a similar standard. www.youtube.com/watch?v=--DZazcBYyA Jim Bergerac wrote:Oh, and finally, thanks for the heavily-edited match highlights on Youtube - a real 'video nasty'. . Jim - I do edit it. Otherwise it would not be a highlights video. I also show what I see. If Cougars play well, I show the good. If the other team play well, I show that also. If we play badly I show that. Note our visit to your place in 2010. I would not describe it as a video nasty. It was the best / worst bits whichever way you look at it as I saw it. If you don't like it don't watch it. IMO these teams are very close in standard. I do think on this occasion the ref helped Batley a little. What goes around comes around and there will be other weeks when ref decisions favour us. (I hope) Part of the game. Also IMO the try by the Batley number 4, or more the build up and way the try was made was class. This was the one that took it to 16 - 12

The Batley 1st try was a joke. The ref who collected and thought he deserved his pay for awarding it likewise. A player lands on his ball carrying arm, he is tackled. He can't pass the ball forward then after that. If it could be seen from the other end of the field I don't know how the ref didn't see it as he was stood over it. I wouldn't mind but he continued the rest of the game with a similar standard. www.youtube.com/watch?v=--DZazcBYyA Jim Bergerac wrote:Oh, and finally, thanks for the heavily-edited match highlights on Youtube - a real 'video nasty'. . Jim - I do edit it. Otherwise it would not be a highlights video. I also show what I see. If Cougars play well, I show the good. If the other team play well, I show that also. If we play badly I show that. Note our visit to your place in 2010. I would not describe it as a video nasty. It was the best / worst bits whichever way you look at it as I saw it. If you don't like it don't watch it. IMO these teams are very close in standard. I do think on this occasion the ref helped Batley a little. What goes around comes around and there will be other weeks when ref decisions favour us. (I hope) Part of the game. Also IMO the try by the Batley number 4, or more the build up and way the try was made was class. This was the one that took it to 16 - 12

i just thought with the celebrations the cup was won for another year

Yes, I've had a quick look on your site, there are lots.

I had a very good view of the incident, the Batley player offloaded the ball by rolling the ball along the ground. It travelled at least half a yard forward. Unfortunately the one person in the ground who should see it doesn't and gives a try. It was a dreadful decision but it did not cost us the game. It was more to with the left hand side of our defence caving in.



I think we've come in a little under done. It would have been nice during pre season to see all the new signings play together more often so they could get used to each other

Good luck as well for the new season.