Kingstone Press League 1 Preview: Keighley Cougars v North Wales Crusaders
Keighley Cougars made it three wins out of three with their win at Newcastle Thunder last week.
Coach Paul March said: “We set standards in our first game against York, fell below them against Hemel but certainly picked them up at Newcastle last week. The surface up there suited our style of play.
“I’m happy with the way things are going but it’s another tough test this week against North Wales, one of the sides who were relegated with us.
“We won one and they won one last year so we’re expecting a tough test and hopefully we can come out on top.”
Second row Matty Bailey is doubtful having taken a knock to the head but hooker David March is back in contention and winger Rikki Sherrife is due to return.
North Wales Crusaders return to League 1 action this week after putting in a competitive performance against Featherstone Rovers in the Ladbroke’s Challenge Cup.
Coach Anthony Murray said: “I wanted our boys to put up a good showing and we did for 65 minutes then due to the superior fitness and physicality of their players, they just ran away with it when our boys dropped off a little bit.
“I’m hoping our players have got a lot out of that for this week. Keighley seem to have found a rich vein of form recently and I’m sure they’re going to be looking for a little bit of revenge because we beat them there last year.
“They’ll obviously be wanting to carry on their league form and stay at the top of the table. We’re going there with some decent form ourselves.
“We got to the iPro Cup final at Blackpool, were a bit unfortunate against Newcastle and put up a half-decent showing against Featherstone.
“It will be nice to get back to league action and gauge where we’re at. Keighley are a good team and the league table doesn’t lie.”
Murray was down to his last 17 for the Featherstone game but is hoping to have a few bodies back this weekend including second rows Jono Smith and Alex Thompson together with some the dual registration players from Warrington.
