Harrogate Pythons visited a very cold Keighley for the first fixture between the two sides this season. Keighley’s home advantage on their 3G pitch has plagued The Pythons over the past 3 seasons but given recent form The Pythons went into the fixture with some confidence. That confidence was rewarded as The Pythons controlled the game up to 10 minutes into the second half leading 10-19. Keighley came back strongly scoring 5 unanswered tries to win the fixture 43-19.Marcus Fotherby took the first line out giving runners Harry Butler and George Booth an early opportunity to break the home defence. Freddie Abrahams controls play from scrum half and keeps the game moving closer to the home line. Butler breaks wide but loses the ball in the tackle 2m out. Keighley clear their lines and mount their own attack. Solid tackling from Ben Pryor and Rhys Cory in mid field hold the attack but the referee spots an infringement at the breakdown, Keighley take the lead 3-0 on 10 mins.Jack Whiting kicks ahead and the phases begin again. Abrahams puts Harry Jackson into space but he’s bundled into touch on half way. Whiting breaks again and carries strongly into the home 22. Booth and Fotherby continue the push and win a penalty on the home 5m line. Abrahams waits for an injured player to move from the mark, taps to himself and spots Joel Misseldine on a great line, pops him the ball and he breaks through 2 tacklers to score, Pryor adds the extras, 3-7 on 15 mins.Will Milnes is solid in defence and closes down the area around the breakdown. Some quick hands wide give the home team space for their pacey winger to dart over, 10-7 0n 25 mins. A high kick is gathered by Jackson on halfway and a ruck forms. Natsuki Barclay spots Hugh Tatlow running across to the blind side and whips a pass out to him. Tatlow steps two players and runs through the home full back to score from 50m. Pryor adds the 2, 10-14 half time.
Straight from the kick off Harry Smith intercepts a pass on his own 22 and races 75m to score, 10-19. From this point The Pythons begin to lose their grip on the game with the home side running in 5 unanswered tries with the final score 43-19.
After the game Coach John Liley said, ” We couldn’t build on the platform that we had created ourselves. We finished the first half on the front foot and went into the break with a narrow lead. Having increased our lead to 9 points with another try at the start of the second half things were looking promising. For some unknown reason we lost our grip on the game and struggled to have any game management. We will go away and learn from that experience and bounce back to the form we were in before the Christmas break. To come away with nothing this afternoon was disappointing”. The Pythons face Old Rishworthian at The Jim Saynor ground on the 10th hoping to reverse the result from earlier in the season. Kick off at 2pm.
Photos courtesy of Daniel Kerr
Try highlights: