KEIGHLEY COUGARS coach Ian Hardman was left to chew over a curate’s egg of a display as he digested a second draw of the season for his side.
Having kicked a late penalty-goal to seal a 16-16 scoreline at home to Workington in March, Keighley fought back from 16 points behind after 42 minutes to tie 22-22 at Swinton, with centre Oliver Whitford completing a hat-trick in the last minute but Will Groves, playing scrum-half, unable to add the conversion from out wide.
It was a dramatic debut for Toby Green, the former Leeds Academy and Newcastle prop signed on loan from Workington, who was among the Cougars replacements.
“It’s a difficult one,” said Hardman when asked to assess the performance.
“We were miles off in the first half and started the second poorly as well, but very good in the last half hour, and got the tries we needed to come away with the draw, and in the context of the game, that was a plus.”
Hardman added: “Swinton started a lot better than us. They ran harder and tackled harder, while we were making errors early in the count.
“It was a worrying first half with a lot of the things we were seeing, and at half-time it was about trying not to get rattled and staying calm and trying to come up with a fix.
“I think some of it was down to attitude, some to mentality and some to individual errors, and all three needed to be addressed.
“When we finally got going we were much better in the way we built pressure. We were on top in terms of physicality and territory, the key indicators we look at, and we got points on the end of that.”