The Cougars face the long trip to Workington tomorrow in National League Two without two of their impressive back-row forwards.

Daniel Harvey, their star Aussie signing, is still out with persistent knee injury and 19-year-old Jordan Ross looks like being out for at least another month with a stress fracture of the foot.

However, there is good news for Cougars coach Gary Moorby, who welcomes back hooker Jonny Wainhouse, and his defensive skills around the ruck will give Keighley a much-needed lift after their gut-wrenching defeat to York last Sunday.

Moorby was at possibly his lowest point since taking charge of the club immediately after the game last weekend but he has bounced back to prepare his side for the long haul to Cumbria.

After a disappointing trip to France and the 16-minute collapse against York, Moorby and his coaching staff are remarkably upbeat.

He still maintains that a catalogue of bad refereeing decisions cost Keighley the game but in fairness he has also laid the blame squarely at the feet of his side.

"I still maintain there were some tough calls against us and have addressed it with referees' controller Ray Tennant," said Moorby. "However, we still had time to win the game in the last 15 minutes. We had four good sets in which we showed great approach work to get us to the York red zone, including a brilliant 40-20 kick from Matt Firth. However, we made crucial errors, including one with four minutes to go when we were still in the lead!

"We looked a very anxious football team, and it was us that looked to be chasing the game. I've told the players this week that we need to be able to think on our feet, be able to analyse in play and be patient.

"I was a little disappointed that we had the experience on the field to do that - and didn't - and in a couple of instances it was our most experienced players that came up with those four errors."

Despite it being painful viewing, Moorby was able to take some pluses from the match video, which he viewed three times.

"We've highlighted the positives in the game and for 64 minutes we were totally dominant against one of the so-called favourites for promotion.

"We have to learn from the very harsh lessons and move on. We played some very good controlled rugby featuring lots of good support play and executed things we've been working on in training. I think it sums it up when I say that that was our best 65 minutes for 12 months and worst 15 minutes since I took over as coach."