CRAIG Lingard wants the Cougars to earn breathing space in the top-eight League One race with back-to-back victories over two rival contenders.

Keighley will go a long way to cementing their place in the Super 8s if they can win at Newcastle Thunder tomorrow and beat London Skolars at home the following week.

Head coach Lingard has higher targets but his first objective is to ensure the Cougars, who are currently sixth, finish in the top half of the table before it splits in two at the end of July.

With six games to go of the regular season, the race is hotting up in a congested league which sees Doncaster in fourth position only six points above the 13th-placed Skolars.

Lingard said: "Everyone is playing everyone else around them. If we win these next two games and get four points, I would imagine that we would be pretty much cemented in that top eight as teams are taking points off each other around us.

"It's a really good opportunity for us to put a bit of breathing space between us and clubs around us – and also to try and get in that top four as well."

A top-four spot is the ultimate goal, which would mean four of seven Super 8s fixtures would be at Cougar Park rather than three.

Lingard wants an improvement in Keighley's away form, which has seen them win just twice on the road so far.

Yet he is aware that tomorrow's trip to Kingston Park, home of Premiership rugby union side Newcastle Falcons, will be far from easy.

"I think Thunder are in a false position and are better than their league placing suggests at the minute," warned Lingard, whose side returned to winning ways with an emphatic 74-6 win at home to South Wales Ironmen last week.

"They have strength all the way down the middle with a strong pack and some strike on the edge as well. We are under no illusions it's going to be a massively tough game.

"If we beat them we go four points above them and if they beat us they go level with us, so it's a huge 'four-point' game. We need to chalk it off and get our away form back on track."

As was the case on their last away trip – when Keighley lost at Doncaster – their hosts are likely to be playing under an interim coach following the departure of Mick Mantelli last month. His assistant Jason Payne oversaw Thunder's last match, in which they beat Gloucestershire All Golds 56-10.

Lingard said: "He will have his own slant on things but we're under no illusions that they are going to challenge down the middle.

"We need to be patient as the game progresses. That is how York beat them (in the game before All Golds). Newcastle started off really strongly against York but they ground them down just by working hard."