MATCH INFORMATION
KEIGHLEY COUGARS v DONCASTER RL - BETFRED LEAGUE ONE ROUND SEVEN
FRIDAY 19TH APRIL - 3PM KICK OFF
COUGAR PARK - KEIGHLEY - BD21 3RF
REFEREE - MR CAMERON WORSLEY (LEEDS)
ADMISSION:
ADULT - £10
CONCESSIONS - £5
JUNIORS (13 & UNDER) - FREE
LINGARD: "BREAK WAS WELCOME"
A BREAK from the demands of action will do his squad good, says Keighley Cougars head coach Craig Lingard.
Cougars have a blank weekend following their Coral Challenge Cup exit to Bradford Bulls last month.
Lingard has granted his squad the weekend off as he looks at the bigger picture of almost six months and at least 18 league and cup games ahead of them this season.
Cougars return to action with a home Betfred League One clash against Doncaster on Good Friday (April 19, kick-off 3pm).
"We are conscious we are now near to zero points. The guys are really focused on doing it as soon as possible, starting with Doncaster on Good Friday. We need to start beating the tougher teams in the league."
They made it three wins from their opening five league games with a commanding 56-12 victory at West Wales Raiders on Saturday. This saw them take their points tally to -5.
Lingard said: "We will be training as normal in midweek, then I will give them some time off.
"It is important that the players spend as much time away from the club as they can.
"It is a really long season. We have a really young squad. Against West Wales the average age of our squad was 24. They are young guys and they need to let off a bit of steam.
"I will be doing prep work. I will be watching all of the Doncaster games so far this season. I'm not getting as much of a break as the players are."
Lingard said his side's start to the season has even taken him by surprise, as they look to get into positive points as quickly as possible.
He added: "It's better than anybody could have anticipated.
"We are conscious we are now near to zero points. The guys are really focused on doing it as soon as possible, starting with Doncaster on Good Friday. We need to start beating the tougher teams in the league."
"We put in a really good performance and have got seven out out of eight since, including our draw at London Skolars.
"We were going a bit into the unknown at the start of the season.
"We are concious we are now near to zero points. The guys are really focused on doing it as soon as possible, starting with Doncaster on Good Friday. We need to start beating the tougher teams in the league."
TEAM NEWS
Linners makes a number of changes to his 19 man squad from the victory away at the West Wales Raiders a fortnight ago.
Jamie Thackray (Hamstring), James Feather (Groin) and Jason Muranka (Heel) all return from injury and are brought straight back into the side.
Taylor Prell, fresh of his try scoring debut for the reserves against Bradford two weeks ago, is also included as in line for his first-team debut on Friday.
Josh Lynam is out as he serves the first of his two game suspension for a Grade C charge of disputing a match official's decision in the Challenge Cup defeat to the Bradford Bulls.
Both Lewis Wray and Matt Nicholson are ruled out with the concussions they sustained in Llanelli with Christopher Cullimore dropping out.
COUGARS: Arnold; Bailey; Cooke; Coventry; Dixon; Feather; Gaylor; Hallett; Hardcastle; Levy; Miller; Million; Moran; Muranka; Parker; Prell; Seeley; Thackray; Welham.
Fresh off last week's Challenge Cup victory over Championship side Batley, Richard Horne has only made two changes from the side that shocked the Bulldogs.
Kieron Lawton, who became the youngest player to ever play a competitive game for the Dons, and Hull FC dual-reg player Charlie Patterson-Lund are the two to miss out.
They are replaced by Liam Harris, who comes in on dual-registration from Hull FC, and Jordan Howden who returns after missing out last weekend through injury.
Brandon Douglas is also expected to return from injury but former Cougar Matty Beharrell misses out though as he is sidelined with an ankle injury.
DONCASTER: Bastas; Bower; Boyle; Buchanan; Chrimes; Cox; Doherty; Douglas; Foster; Harris; Hedges; Howden; Kesik; Ogden; Scott; Spiers; Tali; Townsend; Yere.
INSIDE THIS WEEK'S #CDQ
INSIDE THIS WEEK'S ISSUE OF #CDQ
Pull-out poster of Jason Muranka
20Q with Alfie Seeley
10 Things You Didn't Know About with Davey Dixon
Player in Focus, a #CDQ EXCLUSIVE, with Taylor Prell
A full in-depth look at Friday's opponents, Doncaster
AND MUCH, MUCH MORE!
VIEW FROM THE OPPOSITION CAMP
Richard Horne says his players will have to perform well to beat Keighley Cougars on Good Friday.
The Dons travel to Cougar Park looking to make it three straight wins in all competitions, and the head coach believes they will have to manage the conditions.
He said: “It’s always a tough place to go and the conditions always act as a bit of a leveller, so we need to be mindful of that.
“It’s tight and compact so we know it’s going to be tricky game, with the points deduction they’ve had they will want to have a positive year.
“They’ve got some of our former players with the likes of Jack Miller and Jason Muranka, so I’m sure they will feel they have a point to prove.”
With a short turnaround between fixtures, Horne says the focus will be on recovery ahead of the game.
He added: “The boys have had a week of recovery to make sure they’re all ready for the game and the roles given to them.
“We’ll focus on what we can do and the game against Batley saw us reach the standards that we need to be at on a regular basis.
“Once we get into good areas we tend to execute quite well, it’s more about building momentum early in our sets to get us up the field.”
COUGARS LAUNCH HERITAGE NUMBER PROJECT
Last week, the Keighley Cougars announced the club would be launching our latest heritage project, the Keighley RL Heritage Numbers Project.
Keeping with our aim to maintain, restore and keep alive the history and heritage of professional Rugby League in Keighley, over the next few months we will be working on and launching Keighley RL heritage numbers.
With the club heritage and Hall of Fame bar being refurbished, the club feels it is important continuing this nod and work to look back on the history of professional Rugby League in Keighley and keep the past alive and well whilst also looking towards the future here at Cougar Park.
The idea behind this is for every player to have ever played competitively for Keighley RL and the Cougars to have their own heritage number that is unique to them.
The heritage number scheme is one that has been rolled out at Rugby League clubs throughout the world with our Head Coach Craig Lingard currently working on the same project at the Batley Bulldogs.
The hard work involved in bringing this project together will be done by the team of Club Historian John Pitchford, Club Heritage Dave Kirkley and our Head of Media and Admin Joshua Chapman.
We started last week on our free week without a game with announcing our current squad's heritage numbers this evening on social media and over the next few months will be revealing more heritage numbers before the full list will be revealed once the project has been completed.
The debut of Matt Nicholson against the West Wales Raiders took us to 1538 players who have played a competitive game for Keighley Rugby League and the Keighley Cougars since the formation of the club in 1900, so there is a lot of records to go through and work to be done over the coming months!
John, Dave and Josh would also appreciate any help in identifying players who have played for the club but may have not been named in a team or registered under trialist names such as A.N. Other.
All other help in this project from supporters, historians, former players or anyone else will be gratefully received and greatly appreciated by those taking time to do this project and put the heritage number list together.
So, keep an eye out over the coming months for more on this on our social media channels and matchday programme. and once the hard work is done, we'll publish the full list of heritage numbers.
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