It wasn’t pretty, for sure. But if the adage of ‘any port in a storm’ is true, then Bobbie Goulding’s first ‘proper’ victory as Hornets coach was very welcome.

Overall it was a scrappy affair where the two sides seemed happy to engage in a directionless tussle while the onlookers froze their appendages off. But if the Bobster steers us to a dozen pig-ugly wins between now and September, I won’t be complaining too loudly.

At the outset, it looked like it might turn out to be a bit of a stunner, Hornets racing into a 12 point lead within 20 minutes. A penalty by Lee Birdseye was added to by a great effort by Andy Gorski who took a superb offload by Paul Anderson to crash through wide out.

Five minutes later, It was Rob Ball who made the telling break and he was supported by the impressive Richard Varkulis who steamrollered his opposite number to score. Birdseye added the extras from close to the touchline and Hornets were sitting pretty.

But as Keighley ran in ever decreasing circles on attack and seemed quite happy to spoil and slow down play on defence, Hornets lost momentum and were sucked into the ensuing mess.

Mitchell kicked into the deficit for Keighley, his penalty their sole effort in the first forty to give Hornets a half time lead of 12-2.

Bobbie Goulding will be concerned that Hornets’ post-break concentration seems to be a little awry this term. Less than a minute in, Firth hacked up a last tackle kick that seemed to be going nowhere, Platt and Williams both called “yours” and Robinson could barely hide his surprise at his gift of a try.

But while Keighley were patting themselves on the back for their good-fortune, Hornets ground the ball up the field where Mark Costello decided that enough was enough and burrowed in from a yard to give Hornets a ten point lead.

The rest of the second half deteriorated into a procession of handling errors, penalties, dubious & inconsistent refereeing decisions and petty squabbling - Anderson in particular raising Mr Taberner’s ire and getting a ten minute breather for the privilege.

But the scrappier the game got, the more it suited Keighley’s style and they took full advantage. Twice they got over the line, but failed to ground the ball - but on the third attempt they succeeded when Patterson reacted first to Firth’s kick through.

And that was it, really. I defy anyone to remember this game in six months time. It was one of those desperate scrambles that never seem to go anywhere but into the archives - but better an ugly win than a pretty defeat any time.

Bobbie Goulding was of much the same opinion: “A win’s a win,” he said, “but I’m not happy with our performance. Our completion rate was low again. We think we’re the Harlem Globetrotters. Instead of grinding it out, completing our sets and getting a good kick in, we’re losing the ball in our own half. We just played some dumb football at times.”

But every journey starts with a small step - and wrangling a scrappy win against pugnacious opposition is a step in the right direction. At least we go into next week’s Challenge Cup tie with Warrington in a positive state of mind. In fact, unlike Keighley, we go into next week’s Challenge Cup! And that in itself is a pretty good looking prospect.