Keighley down Dinnington as second half efforts prove enough

Keighley down Dinnington as second half efforts prove enough
By Bill Marshall

HAVING failed to turn territory into possession in the first half, Keighley certainly made up for it after the interval in their Yorkshire One clash at home to Dinnington.
Trailing 7-0 at half-time, the hosts scored three tries, including two in four minutes, to win 22-19 in a contest against a team who had started the day two places and five points higher.
Keighley head coach Danny McGee said: "We played well in every part of the field in the first half apart from their 22.
"We put pressure on ourselves, we lost the ball, we didn't manage it, we relieved the pressure too easily, but that was my only criticism of the lads and we put that right in the second half."
Dinnington, who seem to be able to win at home but are nowhere near as good away, led via a try by prop Joshua Cox that former Cleckheaton fly half Jonny West converted.
Keighley were soon on the board via an Oli Mitchell penalty in the second half and cashed in just after the hour when fly half Grayson Tihema combined neatly with centre Rich Tillotson for the latter to score.
That gave McGee's team the lead, with Mitchell's conversion making it 10-7, and Dinnington had no time to recover before Keighley's man-of-the-match Tillotson put left winger Chris Stead away for a try.
The visitors hit back with a try by left winger Alex Rimmington but Keighley sealed the win with an 80th-minute breakaway try by No 8 Will McLaughlin, which was superbly converted from the left touchline by replacement Jack Atkinson.
But Dinnington were not to be denied a losing bonus point, scoring a try five minutes later through lock James Egerton, the visitors' man of the match, which West converted.
McGee said: "We can break teams down really quickly but we found it hard at times as they defended really well.
"The support was good for Rich Tillotson's try, and individual brilliance gave Will his try.
"We sometimes gave Dinnington cheap points but we deserved the win and I am really pleased, although I am disappointed that we gave them that bonus point at the end which tarnished things a bit.
"The back line looks good when we are firing and Will just has that strength and a low centre of gravity and can sniff that gap. He has scored some tries this season."
All the talk before kick-off was which Keighley team were going to turn up, and McGee admitted: "I mentioned that in the team talk before the match started.
"I challenged them because we can be up there mentally or not, and on the whole we put in a much more rounded performance than we have for a while over 80 minutes."
The omens were not good from the kick-off, however, as lock James Cunliffe knocked on, giving visiting centre Mike Leitch the chance to run strongly, only for Dinnington to then lose possession.
Right winger Alan Ebbrell's defensive prowess was soon needed for Keighley though but the hosts attacked well in the eighth minute via centre Sean Kelly, Stead and Tihema before a stray pass ended the move.
Dinnington's skipper and talisman Ryan Donnelly was injured in unusual circumstances three minutes later.
The flanker was inadvertently caught by team-mate Egerton at a line-out, stumbled and had to be helped from the field with an Achilles injury.
Stead could have passed in Dinnington's left-hand corner on the quarter-hour but chose to take the contact and the chance went begging, and the visitors took the lead in the 21st minute after a series of close-in drives, with Cox getting the touchdown for West to convert.
Another home opportunity came to nothing in Dinnington's 22 when Cunliffe took a line-out and a team-mate ran into a colleague, but the South Yorkshire side's injury woes increased in the 29th minute when flanker Harry Williams' shoulder popped out.
Although it went back in, he was in too much pain to continue and Tihema almost made Dinnington pay when he cut through five minutes later, but he either lost his footing or was tap-tackled.
Visiting fears over another player were eased when replacement Tom Shepherd continued after a knee in the back in the 36th minute, and further Keighley attacks came to nought as Dinnington clung onto their advantage.
Keighley began the second half in much livelier fashion and were rewarded four minutes in when Mitchell popped over a penalty.
Dinnington lost Leitch to a yellow card for a high tackle four minutes later but it was Keighley who were doing most of the defending despite having a man advantage.
Dinnington right winger Jaiden Peters was prominent, running on to West's popped pass before barging Mitchell over, giving the full back a head cut that needed treatment.
Atkinson's thrilling run out of defence put the home side on the front foot, however, and they put Dinnington on the back foot with two tries in three minutes.
Tillotson combined neatly with Tihema to score in the 62nd minute, and in the 64th, Stead was put away down the left by Tillotson to cross for a second try.
Mitchell converted the first and almost added the second but despite leading 15-7, Keighley then suffered their own yellow card three minutes later when Atkinson tackled Rimmington a fraction early in the air.
In the 70th minute, Leitch almost made the home line but Rimmington was over on the left two minutes later.
West missed the conversion but the visitors were under pressure again when they conceded a penalty, referee Matthew Higgins marching then back a further 10 metres for dissent.
Tihema's grubber kick to the left-hand corner in the 76th minute almost brought a try for Stead, but McLaughlin burst clear with a lung-busting run four minutes later to score a try out of nothing.
Atkinson's superb conversion from the left-hand touchline made it 22-12 but Dinnington finished the match on top, with Egerton's try five minutes into injury time securing a losing bonus point after Leitch had again gone close.
West's conversion made it 22-19 but there was no time for a restart and Keighley had claimed their sixth league win of the campaign.
They remain 11th ahead of their derby at Old Crossleyans next Saturday, but are only a point behind Bradford Salem and two points adrift of Dinnington.
Former Cleckheaton player Craig West - father of Jonny - who is helping Dinnington out on the coaching front, said: "We made influential mistakes at key times and their last two tries came when we turned the ball over or missed tackles.
"Other than that there was not a lot in it but I am disappointed with the lads.
"If they were all training as hard as they can like we used to in the day...rugby at this level is tough going and there are not as many lads committed as there used to be.
"It is difficult to keep a team together, especially travelling up the country for two hours, and they are either going shopping or going on holiday at the wrong time."