North Wales Crusaders remained top of Betfred League One with a 30-6 victory over a spirited Keighley Cougars side in Yorkshire.
Carl Forster’s North Wales side arrived at Cougar Park knowing the fixture was a must win affair if they wished to remain at the top of League One this weekend owing to Midlands Hurricanes’ victory over Whitehaven earlier that afternoon.
However, the task at hand was far from easy for Crusaders as they visited a Keighley side who, despite their failure to register a victory in their opening seven league games, were packed with star names and included two new additions to their ranks as the early favourites for the league title looked to secure their first points of the season.
North Wales head coach Forster had spoke in the week about the need for his side to discount the low league standing of their opponents as he was expecting a different performance from the Cougars now under the leadership of Alan Kilshaw.
For the majority of the game, his words proved wise advice as Crusaders were made to work for their territory on a blustery afternoon at Cougar Park.
Following some even early exchanges, it was North Wales who opened the scoring with ten minutes on the clock as Sam Wilde did well to reach out in the tackle and ground the ball.
An intense back and forth period followed with both sides holding strong in defence.
However, after a period of sustained pressure on the visitor’s line, Keighley finally made their mark in the last minutes of the first-half as Bentley broke through to level the score.
With ten minutes of the second-half gone, Crusaders re-took the lead as Jamie Dallimore converted a penalty.
Their lead was further extended minutes later as a well worked pass to the wing found Ollie Brookes who made no mistake in rounding the defender to score.
Crusaders continued to dominate the second period and dealt well with the challenges thrown at them from the home side.
Their efforts were justly rewarded with ten minutes to go as Dallimore finished a nice move to bring the score to 18-6.
The visitors weren’t done there though as a further two scores followed. Joe Baldwin got the first as he reacted quickly to the bounce of the ball to score before Wilde bagged his brace for the afternoon finishing a nice play on the last tackle.
Whilst the victory leaves Keighley still in search of their first points of the season, North Wales returned from Yorkshire with another vital two points and remain top of Betfred League One ahead of a home clash against Rochdale Hornets next weekend.