Defended well for the first 30 minutes.

Then their class showed and they capitalised on every mistake we made clinically.

Last 10 minutes we get 3 consolation tries.

What worries me is how impotent our attack looks. Forwards not taking ball at full tilt, no-one coming in at angles, no inside runner options, not using the wingmen enough.

For 70 minutes today we didn't look like scoring.

It was a good arm wrestle for the first 25 minutes and then we pulled away pretty well. The cougars held in though and got a couple of smart 4 pointers at the end.


See you at the end of season.

Impressed by the support Widnes brought with them for which they need applauding,bit concerned as to where our lot were today?we got a lot of stick for it but I couldnt answer back because they were right,as for the performance,solid for 25 then the killer try on half time,that seemed to knock the stuffing out of us,stealth is absolutely right,we were lying far too deep and giving Ollie the ball pretty much stood still is no good at all,he has come on leaps and bounds since Barry put him in the second row but the lad needs to take these passes on the burst,hes deceptively strong and we arent utalising it enough.

thanks mate great day out at cougar park,you have great fans and made the vikings very welcome,its a shame someone looses,good luck for the rest of the season.

Agreed out of all the fans that we have met over the years Keighley are right up there, great folk who always make us welcome. Shame that more didnt come out today but i wish you well in the rest of your season.

Good post, I agree about the cougars fans but it was a cup game so might have put season ticket holders off having to pay and that. who knows?

I thought they looked a lot more than 1600 there to be fair.

Dont know where they were guys?only thing it might be is that we have a large amount of season ticket holders and maybe they werent prepared to pay the extra £14 today?i dont know?however good luck in the final,you have a lot of class in your ranks,its very clear that if we want to progress in this league we need to play with a lot flatter line,we were too deep and nearly stationary when receiving the ball,we missed Johnny Presley today but not an excuse.

Despite loosing today was a great day at Cougars.

The Widnes Fans turned up in numbers and brought a great atmosphere.
Also noted the Chris Baines appreciation society came over from Oldham. (Another great set of fans)
Then not to mention the Batley contingent who were also wanting Keighley to win. (I wonder why)

Both teams enjoyed seeing Barry Eaton, showing some of the old majic.

Video will be posted soon.

So, why no criticism of our coach?

He regularly 'rests' Jermaine (who played out of his skin today in my opinion) but refused to substitute himself!

Perhaps all of his shouting took its toll on him as he was way off the pace. If we don't have any readily-available substitutes for Presley then we have no chance of staying up. Barry Eaton was leaden-footed today (apart from his try - which was made by Hutchinson and could have been scored by anyone after the hard work had been done) and both of the last two tries in the first half were scored in his sector of the pitch when he was unable to meet the pace of the Widnes players to even attempt to stop them scoring. Then what did he do? Shout, rant and rave again.

Can anyone explain why he played today in such an important game?

He's done wonders as a coach this season off the pitch but I believe that's where he should stay.

OK; we didn't lose any League points today, which is the only consolation for me but, as a player Barry lost any credibilty.

To play a game with 12 men in a semi-final is criminal.

Other 'posts' about how we can attract more support can only be answered by the comment: 'REDUCE THE ADMISSION PRICE'.

The rest of the team were good with great performances from several players but what's happened to Brendan Rawlins - if he loses any more weight then we might as well play him on the wing as, on today's and last week's performances, he couldn't break his way out of a paper bag at prop! Jermaine Wray made far more headway than Rawlins - it's a pity that HE doesn't play with the passion of Jermaine.

As usual, I await the criticism which I used to receive but, after driving 170 miles and paying to watch today's game then I feel that I need to have my say.

Can't disagree about Barry.

He must not much faith in the other half-backs at the club.

I'd have played Baines (who had a very good game) at 6 and stuck Carl Hughes in at loose myself.

This was the main topic of our conversation yesterday, the team have grown together and hsving barry on the pitch took away the ability to play as they have become accustomed to imo, he should have directed from the sidelines as he usualy does and put a reserve in to cover for presley instead of switching others positions to put himself in the squad

The team i feel did start to play as they got used to having barry on the pitch though, problem was that 75 minutes had already passed by

666 i hope you dont mind me cherry picking bits of your post.

I have to say i was shocked when the teams were called out.

The talk around us, was why is Barry playing, why hasn't one of the squad being picked.

Enjoyed the day and a nice friendly ground to visit as well. Was shocked to see Barry playing, but nice to see him score near the end.

Only minus points on the day was the number of 'sunday drivers' on the road between Halifax and Keighley (just managed to get in for kick off!) and nearly getting killed by a cricket ball in the burger queue at half time. Fair do's to the batsman, it was a hell of a hit!

The Keighley players showed up well, but the main thing for me was that we managed to cut out alot of the bad discipline and stupid defensive mistakes that have cost us recently and we had someone at full back who can actually catch a high ball (Flynn is a winger by trade but is fair better under the high ball than the other three we've tried at full back this year).

Good luck for staying up and sadly I'll miss our league visit as I'm on my holidays.

I didn't think we were bad, but if we had much more creativity when attacking, the scoreline might have been very different.

Widnes had a good defence and it was up to us to break it. We didn't.

I applauded your sprinter who ran the length of the pitch and scored a try and I noticed a few other Keighley fans doing the same.

Anyway, fair play to the Widnes fans. I knew you'd give your team a proper backing and I was a bit jealous that we didn't seem to give our team the same level of vocal backing. You're a team I've had a soft spot for ever since I went to watch you when you were in The Super League with a friend of mine who follows Widnes.

I hope you can finally get in to The Super League so I can have a team to look out for on the TV.