THE trouble with losing is that it is a hard habit to break and if Lynx want to get out of this slump then they are going to have to be more inventive and fiery than they were in this 40-14 defeat against Keighley Cougars.

Coach Steve Hampson was confident before the game and had a couple of new signings in Danny Jones at centre, Neil Alexander at stand off. Andy Bennett at hooker and Neil Flanagan back after injury justified Hampson's new-found confidence.

Lynx are now third from bottom. Alarmingly, they have fewer points than bottom-placed Doncaster Dragons and have conceded more points than Oldham who are the team just below them.

The Cougars set off in great style and within 10 minutes Lynx were 14-0 down.

Hampson took the struggling John Welch off and put PJ Soloman on at centre.

The Lancashire side managed to stem the flow and after 21 minutes Shaun Geritas powered over the try line after good work from hooker Andy Bennett.

Lynx then committed suicide by conceding possession from the kick-off when Danny Jones knocked on.

A cracking move from Antonik gave the gleeful Foster his hat-trick. Parsley gave Lynx hope when he latched on to a pass from Jones and ran 60 metres to score an easy try under the posts.

Doc Murray then gave away a penalty for holding down in the tackle on his own ten-metre line which pushed Keighley to 20-10 for the first half.

Matt Foster scored his best try of the game after 48 minutes when he dummied and side-stepped four Lancashire players with a fantastic turn of pace to dump the ball over the try line.

Hope appeared for Lynx when Soloman picked up the ball on his own 20-metre line and pinned his ears back for a cracking solo try in the right corner.

Sadly, it was the last they would score as the Cougars took a stranglehold on the game.

A disappointing day for Lynx and at the moment there are plenty of those. Next game for Lynx is at home against Workington Town on May 3, kick-off 7.30pm.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.