HORNETS are just one win away from a place in the National League Two final after a breathtaking

victory against Keighley Cougars at Lawkholme Lane on Sunday.

Having trailed 26-6, the visitors staged a fairytale comeback and with five minutes to go skipper Ian Sinfield smashed his way over the line for the winning try, to set up a mouthwatering final eliminator against Oldham Roughyheads - who lost to Doncaster - at Boundary Park next Sunday.

For the second week, running Hornets dug deep with a display of courage, commitment, and their never-say-die attitude was again to the fore.

It wasn’t a game for the faint-hearted and Hornets boss Darren Shaw’s pulse was still racing 15 minutes after the final whistle. Not that he was complaining after watching his players give their all for the Hornets cause.

 He said: "It was a pulsating finish and we just managed to seal things at the back end of the game. It’s very difficult because you can’t do anything from the dug-out apart from throwing the messages out and, hopefully, the players respond and listen to them.  It was heart in the mouth stuff but we have shown throughout the year we can hang in there and come back. There is a fantastic amount of character in the squad and we live another week. I can’t speak highly enough about the players it was absolutely fantastic to come back from that first half deficit.  The game is all about momentum. We started off quite well and we were 6-0 up. Then they enjoyed a lot of possession got us on the back foot and we were quite fatigued and we struggled a bit. We scored a try just before half time which got us back into the game."

Asked what was the secret of his half time talk he explained: "I didn’t have to raise my voice. I told them we weren’t applying ourselves very well in defence. Our initial contact wasn’t good enough, we were getting pushed off and they were getting a lot of second phase.  I just said at half time we didn’t need to chase the game. We just had to be patient, keep completing our sets and mix it up a bit more. We hadn’t shown enough variation, we hadn’t asked them enough questions but when we did we caused them a few problems. It’s an attitude thing in defence and we put it in, in the second half.  It was an absolute war. It was 26-26 for quite a while and it was a real game of cat and mouse. But when Carl Sneyd converted Ian Sinfield’s try from near the touchline we knew they had to score and convert."

Shaw was also keen to emphasise the team ethic within the squad and he can now look forward to Sunday’s sudden death showdown.

He added: "The best thing about these kinds of performances is that you can’t pick out individuals. That’s fine by me. It’s a team game and they all turned up and did the job real well. And hats off to them. It’s a great result for us.  We have spent the last two weeks over in Yorkshire, Oldham are near neighbours and it should make for a cracking derby.  We are pretty confident and when it gets tough we have players who can stand up and be counted. It’s about who turns up on the day and if those little things – the bounce of the ball – go your way you get a bit of momentum and away you go. We just have to prepare well and get ready to go."