London Skolars 30 Keighley Cougars 20

KEIGHLEY Cougars were left stunned after they fell to a shock defeat at the London Skolars.

It could be argued Paul March’s side had one eye on next week's iPro Sport Cup final against York City Knights in Blackpool as they performed well below par.

London opened the scoring after four minutes when Erjon Dollapi powered his way over from close range.

Aaron Small doubled the deficit when Paul Handforth raced out of the line, leaving space to allow the centre to stroll through for the score.

And the Skolars registered their third try when former Keighley player Jy-Mel Coleman’s grubber kick caught the defensive line short and allowed Israel Eliab to pounce.

The Cougars did have a try controversially ruled out when Handforth tucked himself over the line but was judged to have knocked on by referee Tom Grant.

It appeared that half-time had come at the wrong time for the home side as Keighley started the second 40 in rapid style, scoring four tries to turn the game round and take a two-point lead.

Ross Peltier crossed first as he ran over an attempted tackler to race 30 metres to score in the corner.

Three minutes later, Ritchie Hawkyard, arguably the Cougars best player on the afternoon, cut the margin down to eight points as he turned through to burrow his way over the line.

And another spell of two tries in three minutes midway through the half completed the turnaround, which appeared to turn the game in the visitors' favour.

Vinny Finigan finished a cross-field move to touch down unchallenged in the corner and James Feather raced from the back of a scrum and through the entire London side to go over next to the posts.

However, after Sam Druce managed to somehow get over to restore the Skolars lead, the game was put beyond the Cougars with six minutes left when Neil Cherryholme coughed up possession and Ben Gray touched down from the free play.

A miserable afternoon ended in miserable fashion, with Charlie Lawrence converting after March’s side were penalised for holding down. Ritchie Hawkyard was sin-binned for his part in a bust-up with under a minute remaining.