COUGARS chairman Gary Fawcett has revealed the club’s spending on players has increased by 35 per cent as they begin their bid to win promotion this season at South Wales Scorpions on Sunday.

Fawcett believes Keighley had the best squad in League One last term as Paul March’s side suffered the agony of losing to Oldham and Swinton in their two promotion finals.

It was a traumatic year with the untimely death of popular playmaker Danny Jones and Cougars were not helped by a number of injuries to key men.

Yet Fawcett has since embarked on a profitable recruitment drive which has harvested the likes of Ritchie and Darren Hawkyard and Hull KR duo Aaron Ollett and Sonny Esslemont.

Cougar Park supremo Fawcett said: “I’m excited about the squad because we have invested heavily and it’s certainly a more expensive squad than last year.

“From a contract perspective, the spend has increased 35 per cent from last season when I would say we had the best squad.

“Obviously things happened last year which conspired against us, but we should have a massive influence in the promotion race this season.

“People have certainly recognised our ambition because I have had fans coming up to me asking jokingly ‘have you robbed a bank to pay for these signings?’

“I think the fans are excited and the reason why we have invested in these signings is because we don’t want to fall agonisingly short again.

“When you come that close and don’t go up, it feels worse than not getting anywhere near to promotion.

“To actually lose out twice was tough on the directors, the fans and obviously the team.

“Thus we have strengthened in key areas and everybody is talking about the inclusion of Richie Hawkyard, but I think his brother Darren is going to play a big part too.

“We’ve also got the likes of Aaron Ollett and Sonny Esslemont from Hull KR, as well as a number of other players who we know will do a good job, such as Adam Brook from Bradford Bulls. We had a series of horrific injuries last year and there was a point when 12 of the first 17 weren’t available for four or five weeks. But there is good cover across the board now.”

Fawcett expects the division to be more competitive than last term and added: “Toulouse are a complete dark horse and I think they will definitely have a say along with Rochdale, who have strengthened, Hunslet and Doncaster.

“North Wales Crusaders will always be strong and it’s whether they can sustain it until the end of the season, when they lose all their dual-reg players back to Super League.

“If you look at it starkly, it’s a tougher league than last year but we knew that would happen and that’s why we have invested.”

Cougars were given an early scare by Coventry Bears before beating them emphatically in the Challenge Cup last weekend.

Fawcett said: “I was disappointed that we were complacent at times against Coventry on Sunday.

“Marchy was very specific about this – they were very complacent for the first 20 minutes and then, because they had won the game, they were complacent again in the last 10 minutes.

“We definitely don’t want to be doing that against the better sides like Toulouse, Doncaster and Hunslet.

“Having said that, when the boys turn it on as they did for 50 minutes, Coventry Bears just couldn’t live with them.”

Cougars will be without on-loan Tyler Dickinson, who has been recalled to injury-hit Huddersfield Giants and named in their 19-man squad to face Leeds Rhinos tonight.

Josh Lynam could also be missing with the knee injury he picked up against Wath Brow Hornets in the ipro Sport Cup.

Coach Paul March said: “We have to take the lessons from the Coventry game into Sunday because the southern sides in this division are improving every year.

“We’ve got to make sure that we’re playing to the best of our ability week in, week out now and then the results will take care of themselves because, as we saw with Hamish Barnes’ try just before half-time on Sunday, when you take a foothold in games against the southern opposition, they find it hard to compete.”