COUGARS head coach Craig Lingard is determined that his team and himself improve on last season.

Defeat to eventually-promoted Barrow on the final day meant Keighley finished just outside of the play-offs last term.

But with some new additions over the off-season, Lingard is looking to push his men further in 2018.

"The expectations and standards are to be better than we were last season," he said.

"If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always got. We've got to be different because we don't want to finish where we did last season, we want to get better.

"We've got better personnel and our pre-season is better because we've got better facilities that we're using," Lingard added, with the team training once a week at Bradford Grammar School.

"We're going to be tougher on the guys too. We've got to step up the intensity and the discipline to the next level.

"Players have to take ownership over their performance and their errors. I think the accountability that the players have got next year will be a lot more than this year.

"We've got real good competition in all positions so people know if they're not playing well enough, or they're making error after error, then they're going to be out of the team and waiting their turn."

Lingard himself will also be looking to improve after a promising first year as head coach at Cougar Park.

He said: "It's been a learning curve as it's gone on and if you put your hand up and say you've never made a mistake, then you're lying.

"I've made mistakes as the season progressed and it's about learning from them and recognising what you've done wrong and what you could do better.

"Whenever you lose a game, as a coach I think the first person you should question is yourself," Lingard continued.

"I'm always looking to learn and we've got a real good backroom here that learn from each other.

"For me, as a coach you're always learning and I'll continue to do that next year."