Keighley Cougars Head Coach Barry Eaton has warned his side that they still face a massive challenge to take second place in the final Co-operative Championship One table.

Speaking just hours after his side had completed a 24-22 win at Oldham - their first at Boundary Park since 2000 – Eaton reasoned that while his side had done well that they still faced a substantial challenge.

“We are under no illusions here at Cougar Park,” he said. “We’ve put ourselves in a good position for finishing in second place and a home run in the end-of-season play-offs is within our reach.

“To go to Oldham and come home with the points was impressive and that kind of result obviously gives us some confidence.”

But Eaton, quite clearly remembering last year’s Play-off disappointment when Cougars lost a close call to Rochdale Hornets, said: “There is still a deal of work to do before we know that the job is done and we shall use the same kind of thinking that has served us so well this year by facing each challenge as it arises”.

The Cougar chief recognised that his team have just five games left before the end of the regular season with two of those fixtures remaining at home, including the televised encounter with divisional leaders Dewsbury Rams a week on Thursday.

“There are still some decent sides between us and where we want to be,” he added.

“Hornets RL away from home won’t be easy,” he mused. “Darren Shaw’s team is starting to gel as they showed by hitting London Skolars for more than 60 points in the capital last Sunday.

“Workington Town have just parted company with their coach Dave Rotheram so their players will be going all out to impress either the board of directors or their new coach and that’ll make our trip to Derwent Park very tricky.

“And our last away game of the regular season will be at London Skolars and I’ve learned to be wary of teams who have nothing to lose.”

At home we’re really looking forward to facing Dewsbury in front of SkySports’ cameras.

“We’ve put what happened at Tetley’s Stadium out of our minds and our preparations to play the Rams here at Cougar Park are well advanced.

“That leaves our last home game of the regular season against Hunslet Hawks on August 23. They’ve beefed up their team recently by signing Paul March following his departure from York City Knights and they showed what they could offer by running Dewsbury Rams very close last weekend.

“So you can see that it’s not an easy run into the end of the regular league season for us. We shall have to keep playing, and playing well, to stand a chance of holding on to second place.

“But we shall be going flat out to secure that spot and move into play-off mode in the right frame of mind as well as playing with form.

“This is a very competitive division and nobody gives you advantageous final league placings on a plate. You have to earn them by playing well and we know what we have to do”.