CHARLIE Martin has set his sights on victory at home to former club Hunslet this weekend as Cougars bid to win promotion and save head coach Paul March’s job.

Keighley lost 40-4 at Toulouse last Saturday but it was a vastly-improved display on their 84-6 hammering at the French outfit six weeks earlier.

The former Castleford centre is in confident mood as his side bid to reassert their promotion credentials, March having been told he has to take Cougars up to remain at the helm.

“We’ve played Hunslet twice this year, once in a friendly and once in the league,” said Martin (pictured).

“You always want to do well against your old club, but it’s important not to get drawn into anything and just focus on the game.

“Everyone is still quite optimistic that we can go up because if we’re in that top five, we’re still in with a chance.

“We know that everybody above us is beatable so we’ve got to do our job, which is what we are paid to do.

“There are six games left now, depending if we end up playing York, so we’re not going to write the season off because the main goal is to win promotion and save Marchy’s job.

“He’s not just a head coach but he’s also a good mate of everyone. We have played with him before and I don’t think people realise how difficult it is to go from being a player to being a coach.

“For me, what the club said about needing to go up for Marchy to keep his job has heaped added pressure on us.

“But at the end of the day we are playing for our contracts for the following year as well.”

Martin, who scored Cougars’ only try in last weekend’s Super Eights opener with his 12th of the season, feels his side performed far better than in their previous trip to the League One leaders.

He said: “The alarm bells were ringing after the first trip to Toulouse, but we have done a lot of hard work in training since then.

“We went there last weekend as underdogs but knowing we had nothing to lose.

“We knew we weren’t at our best when we went there last time but everyone who took to the field last Saturday gave 100 per cent.

“Yes, we still conceded 40 points but halving the scoreline from last time was a massive bonus for us.

“Take nothing away from Toulouse because they are a very good team, but they only got up our end of the field through penalties.

“We said that if we tidied that up, the scoreline could have been a lot closer than it was.”

Martin, who joined Cougars from Hunslet at the end of last season and scored twice in the 24-16 win at South Leeds Stadium on Good Friday, added: “There were a lot of positives to take from last week’s game and we will be aiming to build on that heading into the Hunslet match.

“If we put in that performance again this weekend, then I am very confident we will get the right result.”

Martin is out of contract at the end of the year and has attracted interest from a couple of clubs, with staying at Keighley another option.

He added: “My main goal is to go full-time again if I can but it’s difficult to find certainty at clubs with the middle eights structure because they don’t know what their budgets are or what league they will be in.

“I have left it with my agent and we will see what develops.”

Ash Lindsay could miss out again as he recovers from concussion but Cougars are set to welcome back Paul Handforth, Danny Lawton and Brendon Rawlins, who missed out on the trip to France through work commitments.

Rikki Sheriffe (shoulder) and Scott Law (back) could both return to the side but it may be a week too early for the experienced pair.

Hunslet are set to hand Callum Casey a second debut after the second-row rejoined the club late last week. The Hawks are without Liam Mackay for the remainder of the season following an operation on a shoulder injury, with Lee Mapals set to return following an ankle injury.