Pocklington put in another afternoon of considerable endeavour for no reward as they lost 32-5 to league leaders Keighley, the scoreline doing no justice to their contribution.

Yet again Pocklington were badly disrupted by injury.

When they played at Keighley a month ago they ran out of subs and had to continue through the last quarter with only 14 men. On Saturday they were hit even harder, and were down to only 13 fit players for the last ten minutes.

They also didn't get the rub of the green in the opening stages as Keighley were allowed a clear knock-on and forward pass in the build up to the game's first try.

Pocklington quickly hit back when flanker Phil Thompson, returning to the side after four weeks out with a broken hand, took a quick tap penalty and outpaced the cover on a 40 yard sprint to dive over in the corner.

Pocklington continued to put together some good attacks but a dangerous raid into the Keighley 22 saw the visitors counter-attack the length of the field for their second try.

Pocklington's lack of a recognised kicker cost them dear as they missed two straightforward penalties whereas Keighley were on target with their penalty shot to lead 15-5 at the interval.

Pocklington were still in contention, with back rowers Matt Atkinson and Andy Richardson getting through a mountain of work, and wing Tim Bolton being a threat out wide. But Keighley edged further ahead with a well-worked try and another penalty.

Pocklington had a period of sustained pressure but gave away a penalty on the Keighley line and thereafter their effort petered out as they suffered a series of injuries and were left short-handed .

The final injustice was when they made a promising attack only for Keighley to intercept and run clear to the posts and then kick their third conversion.

Updated: 10:42 Monday, December 23, 2002