Newcastle Thunder v Keighley and other League 1 matches review

The match

Keighley were the visitors to Blaydon Sunday afternoon as Newcastle Thunder looked to cause the more experienced Cougars outfit problems. Luckily the heavy showers from earlier in the day had cleared and although there was a strongish wind it was a pleasant afternoon for some rugby league.

As I said in my pre-match preview this is a Keighley outfit that has far too many well established players to be sat winless in League 1 this season. They showed that with some of the tries they scored. Jack Teanby on a two week loan from York brought the power for his first two tries, he was playing like he had a point to prove. For Keighley to be able to bring in someone with over two hundred and fifty games under their belt on loan is a real coup, he knows how to do it and do it he did.

Keighley to me looked like a side that aren't going to roll over for the rest of the season and they could well have a part to say in who makes the play-offs. My concern for them is when the going gets tough in a game and they're under pressure how do they react to each other? At 12-0 there was a bit of Thunder pressure coming on and although they saw it out the body language didn't look great. More experienced teams will play on that and find a way to turn the screw at that point. That's not to take anything away from Keighley who were well worth their 0-30 half time lead and the 0-52 victory. A mad five minutes or so before half time cost Thunder, when Keighley scored three converted tries to take the game away from Thunder. Thunder did have Keighley under pressure at 12-0 and if they'd scored it could've made things very interesting. Unfortunately the first set of Keighley interchanges continued the physical barrage and Thunder couldn't live with that defensively.

To Thunder, a lot of the good stuff happened when Evan Lawther got his hands on the ball. Evan's ability to make ground and carry defenders with him will cause any defence in this league a headache, as I said in my preview we saw it last season. It was good to see him continue this during the game. Another one who I thought looked lively was winger Jake Dickinson. To be fair to the Thunder pack they battled away against a physical Keighley outfit and did battle to the end. There was definitely a couple of opportunities that on another day could've led to Thunder tries.

Newcastle Thunder on the attack.

I must admit, although the scoreline is disappointing again these lads never took a backwards step against a much more experienced outfit. When I left the Workington game I was probably a bit downbeat as maybe we showed them too much respect, but today I definitely didn't see that. Yes there was the odd occasion where a Thunder defender would bounce off a powerful Keighley attacker, but no one took a backwards step at any point in that game. The attitude and heart of this group can't be questioned in any way. I said I wanted to see us make sure Keighley knew they'd been in a game and I think they will.

One of the things I'd like to see is Thunder try and play the ball a bit quicker, at the moment the defences are having time to get set and re-group. This makes attacking a lot more difficult, even if they wriggle around on the floor to show the referee they're trying to play it quicker that could win the odd penalty.

My thoughts

I'm not going to get too down about things at the moment as scorelines and results are not what I'm about. What I'm bothered about is this group putting a shift in. It can't be easy for a young group heading around the country and getting turned over each week, but they stick at it and turn up and put a shift in when others may have thrown their toys out the pram and given up. They do it because they want rugby league to be successful in the north east just as much as the fans.

Evan Lawther went off halfway through the second half, I'm hoping the injury isn't a recurrence of his injury. I'll also give a shout out to the supporters who attended today and continue to support week in week out, no one gets on anyone's back and there's an understanding of where Thunder are as a club.

To anyone who wants to be negative about things online, then my question to you is what ideas have you got? It's the easiest thing in the world to be a keyboard warrior, but if you're commenting the chances are you probably care about Thunder and rugby league in the north east. Channel that negativity towards volunteering or sharing any better ideas you have for any improvements.

League 1 round up

Midlands came from being behind 8-14 at half time at home against Swinton to take a 38-26 victory with it only being settled with a late Midlands converted try. It's great to see an expansion team going well.

North Wales sent a statement out to the rest of League 1 with a commanding 32-12 victory over Rochdale. They put in a strong first half to be winning 26-0, Rochdale look to have come back into it in the second half making it the tight game I felt it might be, but by that time it was too late. That result sends a message to the rest of the league.

Finally, Dewsbury had a good win on the road at Workington. The first half ended 12-12 with Dewsbury taking home a 12-20 victory. They'll be delighted after such a long break to be back to winning ways.

Crusaders winning keeps them top with Midlands in second place, Workington and Dewsbury round off the play-off places currently but it's still very tight down to Whitehaven in seventh. Like I've said from what I've seen today if Keighley get their act together they can still have a big part to play in who makes the play-offs.

Next up

Newcastle Thunder now have a three week break before their next game where they're on the road to Workington Town on Sunday 22nd June for a 15:00 kick off. I'll say it again but the disjointed nature of the league is irritating for everyone and it must be frustrating for the club given we don't have a home game until Sunday 20th July when Rochdale are the visitors to Blaydon.

As ever, feel free to comment, follow and share. If you have any ideas then I'm sure the volunteers at the club would be happy to hear them.