Barnes try gives Heath victory

They trailed for most of the contest but a converted try with 10 minutes left enabled the visitors to go fourth in the table and hit coach Dave Harrison’s target of 17 points from the September games.

Heath had Callum Harriett-Brown on the wing for the unavailable Tobias Hinchliffe with Olly Cook coming in at prop for Paddy Kerr, who joined Eddie Cartwright and Martyn Barnes on the bench.

A downpour just before the start made conditions tricky and Heath made plenty of mistakes but Harrison was happy with the result.

Heath were quickly on the attack through their forwards but a dropped pass led to Joe Copperthwaite kicking clear, Sam Pollard beating the home winger to the ball as they raced to the Heath try-line.

Keighley were unable to take advantage of their advanced position when Alex Brown’s penalty hit a post and Jason Merrie cleared.

Keighley had no answer to Seiffe Boussaada and Matt Beasty in the lineouts as Heath began to take hold of the game.

However, the visitors could not capitalise and their hosts got a try from Jonny Clark on 25 minutes. He reacted quickly following a series of penalties awarded by Lawrence Pearson. Brown converted.

From the re-start Beasty released Peter Birkett and under pressure Keighley gave away penalties, Ezra Hinchliffe hitting the target on 30 and 36 minutes to make it 7-6.

Brown replied with three points at the end of the half and slotted a conversion to put Keighley 17-6 up on 42 minutes after a try in the corner from Joey Sugden.

Hinchliffe missed a penalty on 48 minutes but pressure led to a penalty try on 54 minutes after the Heath scrum had dictated. Hinchliffe’s goal cut the deficit to four points.

Jordan Bradbrook put in a try saving tackle before Harriett-Brown made a surging run.

The decisive score came when an attempted clearance was charged down by Barnes and he pounced on the loose ball. Hinchliffe converted and Heath withstood late pressure for a gutsy success.