Cougars still on promotion course

Keighley Cougars Head Coach Barry Eaton was still up-beat about his team’s prospects in spite of their televised 54-14 home defeat by Dewsbury Rams last Thursday evening.

“There’s still plenty to play for and plenty for us to achieve this season,” said the Head Cougar.

“There are three teams in contention for second place in the Co-operative Championship One table with just three games left, so it’s bound to be interesting.

“To be honest I was more disappointed with the margin of our defeat than losing against the Rams.

“We were in the game for 50 minutes and looked really good. We went toe-to-toe with the Rams before the match got away from us”.

The Cougars have their chance to get back on track when they go to face Workington Town in a re-arranged game at Derwent Park on Sunday.

“It’s not the best time to be playing Town,” said Eaton. “They’ve had a win at London Skolars on Sunday and they’ve not had many of those this year.

“They played well although they lost at York and it’s going to be a big ask for us at their place this weekend.

“All the Town players will be putting in a big effort because they’ll be trying to impress the temporary coaches Gary Charlton and Martin Oglandby so we’ll have to playing at our best to compete”.

Cougars had two injury worries after the Dewsbury game.

One of them centre Daley Williams was cleared of having a fractured elbow. Eaton said: “Daley went to hospital for an X-ray and they showed it was not broken.

“He’s hyper-extended his elbow and that’s a soft tissue injury. Hopefully, he’ll be fit in time for our trip to Cumbria.”

Eaton will also have to check winger Lee Mapals who went off with a knee problem during the latter stages of the second half against Dewsbury.

There are two reserve team games this week – at Oldham on Wednesday and at home to Whitehaven on Saturday – so Eaton will delay his team selection to face Town until Friday.