Kingstone Press League 1 Preview: Oldham v Keighley Cougars

Rochdale Hornets gave near neighbours Swinton Lions a tough battle last week, despite having winger Gareth Langley sent off early in the contest.

Coach Ian Talbot said: “We let ourselves down with the discipline. Being down to 12 men for 70 odd minutes was tough but I was proud of the lads’ effort, they stuck to the task but came up short in the end.

“Even with four minutes to go I thought we had a chance of winning the game. We stayed on their coat tails but couldn’t get that extra score to get us level or in front. They always seemed to be one step in front of us, which was hard to take.

“We put a lot of emphasis on the need to win last week and we need to bounce back this week. We’ve got to get our heads up and our chins off the floor. It puts a little bit more pressure on us in the run in having lost last week.”

Prop Danny Jones is a doubt with a head injury.

South Wales Scorpions were beaten 64-0 by York City Knights last week.

Coach Mike Grady said: “It was a difficult one. York are a quality side and they just turned it on against us. We’ll look to put it right this week, we’re not looking at a big victory we’re looking at a performance and hopefully we can do a bit better than we did last week.

“Rochdale being defeated last week is probably the worst thing that could happen for us. We know how tough it is against the Northern sides, especially the ones that are competing at the top. They’ll be looking to put a score on us. We’ve got to train accordingly, get our heads down and try and put a performance in and get a reaction from last week. If we get that I’ll be happy.”