The battle to survive the drop from the Championship has intensified after the latest series of matches.
Defeats for Swinton, Barrow and Whitehaven put pressure on them all, while Keighley’s 26-20 victory over Paul Crarey’s Raiders moves them above all their rivals with three games to go.
Barrow looked to be in a position to win the game when they led 20-10 at half-time but the response after the break from their hosts was spectacular.
The Cougars came back to win 26-20 without conceding another point and snatch two precious points.
The first 17 minutes of the second-half were a disaster for Barrow as the Cougars scored 16 unanswered points to go in front.
There were no further scores at either end after that so Barrow couldn’t get back into the contest.
Not so in the first-half when they were well worth their interval lead which had started with a seventh minute penalty from Ryan Shaw.
The opening try came on 16 minutes when Ryan Johnson put in a clever kick and with the Keighley defence gone AWOL Andrew Bulman was first there to dot down for the try which Shaw improved.
Keighley did get on the score-sheet after 24 minutes when Charlie Graham spun out of a tackle to get the ball down and the conversion Harvey Spence cut the gap to two points.
But Barrow responded quickly and four minutes later they scored again. A long cut-out pass from Jarrod Sammut was helped on by Brett Carter to Bulman who still had work to do but got the ball down in the corner. Shaw converted.
On last tackle in the 34th minute the Cougars got in again with two offloads before going wide and Junior Sa’u scored in the corner.
Then two minutes before the break Barrow scored their third try. On last tackle the ball bounced around before Ben Evans kicked towards the post where Josh Wood tidied up and rounded the defence to score under the posts. Shaw converted for a handy 20-10 interval lead.
Six minutes into the second-half Keighley showed they meant business when Lewis Young got outside the Barrow defence to score an unconverted try.
Almost immediately the Cougars scored again when Dan Parker put his head down and just charged through to score from five metres. Kieran Rush added the conversion to level the scores.
It had been a dreadful start to the second-half by the Raiders and it was to get worse. On 57 minutes Jack Bibby ploughed through some poor tackles to score by the posts and Rush converted.
It proved to be the winning combination for those six points were enough to take Keighley over the line as Raiders saw all their earlier work come to nothing.
Whitehaven were also the victims of a poor second-half effort as they were in the contest at half-time against Halifax, trailing 6-4.
But in the end the Panthers came through strongly to win 30-8 and keep alive their hopes of making the play-offs – in what is proving as tense a battle as the one to avoid the drop.
It was a decisive showing in attack from former Haven half-back Louis Jouffret with two tries and five goals ending in an 18-point haul to pick-up the Halifax man of the match award.
It had been a tough opening quarter with both teams prone to make errors but the Panthers did get in front on 18 minutes when James Woodburn Hall got through with a shimmy and a shake to break the line and score. Jouffret converted.
Whitehaven came back well and went close on a couple of occasions before Daniel Spencer-Tonks forced his way over from close range but Josh Rourke’s conversion attempt came back off the post.
Overall it had been a scrappy first-half but Whitehaven were It very much in the contest.
However in the 51st minute Halifax scored when Jouffret followed-up his own kick to beat the home cover to the touchdown and from bang in front put over the conversion.
It was Jouffret again on 55 minutes when he threw a dummy and then raced in for a clever try which he improved and suddenly the Panthers had clear water between them and their hosts.
Whitehaven did come back and Ross Ainley just couldn’t hold onto the ball before plunging towards the line.
When they took up the running again the Panthers scored again. Ben Kavanagh celebrated his 100th appearance for the visitors by taking a short pass and plunging through defenders to score. Jouffret converted.
Five minutes from time Halifax scored again when Sutcliffe made the break and sent Matty Gee haring over for the try which Jouffret converted.
There was late consolation for Haven two minutes from time when Oscar Doran scored an unconverted try.
