Kingstone Press League 1 Preview: Rochdale Hornets v Keighley Cougars

Rochdale Hornets won 54-16 at Oxford but it wasn’t their greatest performance according to coach Ian Talbot.

“The result’s the important thing,” he said. “If you’d have given us that scoreline before the game, we’d have taken it. It was a potential banana skin going down to Oxford, so we’re happy with the outcome.

“Keighley were pushed all the way by Barrow last week and we’re all scrapping for top five places. We’re scrapping with a couple of clubs for that fifth spot so we need to be at our best at the weekend to get the points.”

Paul March, the Keighley Cougars coach, was happy for his team to get the two points in their match against Barrow Raiders.

“Early on in the game I thought we were in control, then a couple of lapses in concentration allowed them to get some momentum,” he said.

“It made it tough for us but we still had the belief and the character to come back even though we were nine points down with 10 minutes to go. It was a bit nailbiting at the death. You need a bit of luck to reach goals and I think we definitely use one of the lucky cards at the weekend.

“We’ve got another tough one this week at Rochdale. We did a number on them at home so they’ll be wanting a bit of revenge but if we want to achieve our goals we’ve got to beat sides like Rochdale. We’ll go there full of confidence and hopefully we’ll have a few players back.”

Utility player Scott Lee is doubtful with an elbow injury