Saints tame Cougars

As in the previous round against another Division One side, Hull, Super League kings Saints held all the aces in pace, power and penetration.

And such was their defensive intensity that one had the impression that Cougars would not have scored had they played till Doomsday.

However, that is not to say that gallant Keighley did not give their all, for they took the game to Saints. But, try as they may, it was fully 30 minutes before they managed to break a tackle, let alone cross the try line.

So it might be said that there was never a ghost of chance that Keighley would repeat their giant-killing act of round five versus Halifax - perhaps it is sufficient to suggest this was their 'Wembley' such was the fervour of their fans.

And the Cougars can also console themselves with a share of a capacity 7,845 gate and a performance that was truly praiseworthy given the quality of opposition.

From a Saints' point of view then, what was regarded as a tricky hurdle has been safely negotiated as the Knowsley Road team move ever nearer to another date beneath the famous Twin Towers.

But it would be churlish in the extreme to believe that Saints' display within the confines of the Cougar's den was flawless, for they tended to surrender too much possession and choose the wrong option to earn that ultimate accolade. On an individual note barnstorming centre Paul Newlove took the man-of-the-match award closely shaded by Apollo Perelini and Keiron Cunningham, while there was also plenty of support for Chris Morley, who took his chance well as deputy for injured Derek McVey.

Fine, sunny weather and firm going greeted the teams and. after Saints had repulsed an opening onslaught from Keighley - including a magnificent tackle by Alan Hunte on Simon Irving - the visitors drew first blood in the ninth minute.

The spectacular touchdown underlined the virtues of moving the ball wide from long range for, after Morley had broken on the right, Lee Briers and Newlove took up the running for Anthony Sullivan to apply the finishing touch in the corner.

Briers missed the difficult conversion, and Keighley then lost highly-rated loose-forward Robert 'two-bobs' Roberts with knee damage, and slick-handling Saints were now poised for consolidation, which came when Newlove sent Karle Hammond over.

Briers suffered the mortification of seeing his touchline conversion attempt rebound from the crossbar, but there was little respite for Keighley when, after Cunningham had gone close, dummying Tommy Martyn went through like the proverbial dose of salts for Briers to tack on the goal.

Steve Prescott came to Saints' rescue in defusing a 'bomb' from Chris Robinson and a shrewd chip-through by influential Darryl Powell, which were timely interventions ensuring the visitors turned round with a 14-0 lead.

After a 20-minute interval due to crowd problems facing the slope posed few territorial problems for Saints as Perelini, Chris Joynt and Julian O'Neill were held inches short, but it fell to the boot of Briers to inch his side further ahead after Lafaele Filipo was penalised at the play-the-ball.

There was then a certain inevitability of outcome when, after substitute Vila Matautia's thunderous burst was stopped on midfield, Martyn's sleight-of-hand opened the way for Newlove to blast his way over by the corner flag.

The hard-working Joynt then paraded another string to his bow with an adroit reverse pass, which allowed replacement Paul Anderson an uninterrupted passage to the line and set the seal on an uplifting showing by Saints.

However, and to their enternal credit, a Cougar's line-up which had been tamed but not completely caged hit back in the closing minutes with Powell, Irving, Simon Wray and Blackbrook product Jason Critchley being denied by last-gasp tackling from a Saints' squad on the threshold of Wembley.

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