Several Cougars players face the axe after Jason Demetriou blasted his team’s lack of desire.

The player-coach is furious following back-to-back defeats and has warned his team it is time to ring the changes.

Jamaine Wray and Scott Law will earn recalls for Sunday’s trip to face London Skolars after missing out on last week’s loss to Rochdale and nobody’s place is safe.

Demetriou is also on the lookout for new recruits to increase competition for places further as Keighley aim to overhaul Swinton at the top of Championship One.

An attempted move for former Dewsbury and Wakefield prop Kyle Bibb fell through but several other targets remain on the radar, with half-back a priority.

“More disappointing than the result against Rochdale was our lack of desire,” said Demetriou.

“I noticed it while I was out there. There were only three or four of us who were competing throughout.

“I will make changes, it’s as simple as that. I can live with technique or skill levels sometimes being a bit off because they are things I can coach. But I can’t cope with us lacking desire.

“‘Killer’ (Wray) and Scott Law were left out last week and they took it on the chin and were both awesome in the reserves.

“They’ve earned themselves the right to get back into the team, so they will be back in this week.

“I’m also in the market for a couple of new faces but they have to be the right players. It’s tough to actually get players in because, for one reason or another, a lot of the ones we want aren’t available.”

Only a handful escaped Demetriou’s fury after the Cougars threw away a 30-18 second-half lead to lose 31-30 against Rochdale. The Aussie wants the rest of his team to use those players as an example for what is expected.

He said: “Olly Pursglove, Luke Helliwell and Danny Lawton were all good in terms of effort, likewise Ben Sagar, and those guys keep a certain level of performance every week.

“Olly is relentless in his approach in terms of his levels of competitiveness. He puts that effort into every carry and every tackle, to the extent he sometimes goes over the top and he has to rein it in. A lot of the young Keighley lads are like that.

“Ryan Smith also played well for us at hooker and, despite being one of the smaller guys, has been one of our better defenders.”

Promotion has been Keighley’s stated aim since before the start of the season. Demetriou has not been afraid to talk about the club’s bold aims but reckons that talk will quickly start to wear thin unless performances fall into line.

He said: “It’s easy to say we want promotion but they are just words. We have to work hard in every game we play and that’s the attitude we’ve had most of the year.

“But in a way I’m glad we didn’t win because it highlighted areas we need to address and made the players aware what they need to do.

“They didn’t have the intensity they have had all year and there were times when our defence was just opened up.

“It’s the challenge for this level. You need them to be at their best every week. We had a tough game against Whitehaven and we lost, so that should’ve made us even more hungry going into the game against Rochdale.”