Keighley Cougars
Cougars aim to Keep lid on nerves
Barry Eaton is leaving no stone unturned as he plots to stun table-toppers Doncaster - even factoring in the potential effect of Keepmoat Stadium's star quality.
Ellery Hanley's big-hitting side lead second-placed Keighley Cougars only via a superior points difference with both teams having won all four games so far.
They go face-to-face in
Sunday's showdown at the 15,000 capacity ground that is shared with Doncaster Rovers.
For many of the Cougars' young side, it will be the grandest venue they have ever played at, something Eaton reckons may have affected other National League Two
visitors.
"The Keepmoat is a fantastic all-seater stadium and I think some teams have gone there and been in awe of it all," he said.
"Looking at some of Doncaster's home results, they have been 20-0 or 30-0 up in no time, blowing teams away.
"Possibly one of the reasons for that is opposition players are still getting their heads around the size of it all and not concentrating on the game.
"Then the match has sailed by and gone. For us, there's only Neil Lowe who has played there before and it is
something we are addressing.
"We're hoping to get there early, have a good look around, take in all the facilities, get it out of our system and then, when we do take to the field, we won't be shocked or in awe."
Eaton has cited ex-New Zealand Warriors star Corey Lawrie as the man his side will be targeting.
"Donny aren't just a good team but a team of fantastic individuals," he said.
"Zeb Luisi was Super League's top try-scorer a
couple of years ago, they have Chris McKenna from the Bulls and two great young half-backs in Kyle Briggs and Luke Gale.
"But Lawrie is very pivotal, their stand-out player
especially when at dummy-half. We need to stop him
getting out of there and
damaging us."
Keighley, on a five-match
winning run, hope to name the same 17 that defeated Oldham a fortnight ago, although prop Andy Shickell could return.
"We need to replicate the defence we had then and if we do I'm sure we'll trouble Donny with the ball," said Eaton.
"It will be tough as they are the stand-out team so far but we're excited by this prospect."
12:32pm Friday 25th April 2008
Print 
Email this 
Comment
What are these links for?
If you liked this article and would like to share it with others on the web who might be searching for good content we've made it easy for you to do it.
At the bottom of all articles, you'll see links to six sites. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the web.
Clicking the links will automatically add the address of the story you are reading to one of these sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share stories. Registration is free and once a member, you can store, recommend and search for stories that interest you.
More on Digg
More on del.icio.us
More on Furl
More on reddit
More on NowPublic/
More on Yahoo!
