Revenge is â ‘must’ for Keighley Cougars when they face London Skolars in their penultimate Co-operative Championship One encounter on Friday night.

A late penalty condemned Cougars to an 18-16 defeat at the New River Stadium in June – a game in which the performance of Jy-Mel Coleman was impressive enough to have the 22-year old on his way to join Jason Demetriou’s side the following week.

Coleman makes his first competitive return to North London on Friday evening for the traditional eve of Carnegie Challenge Cup final match, dubbed by Skolars as ‘Friday Night Lights’ and aimed at attracting Wembley-bound fans from all across the north.

The Londoners expect a crowd of up to five times their normal 300-400, and Cougars player-coach Demetriou insists: “This is a massive game for us in trying to get second spot.

“We’ve had two weeks to prepare and have got a full-strength squad available but we’re certainly not going to be talking Skolars lightly after what they did to us last time.”

The rejuvenated Londoners have lost just one home game since mid-May, and that was to leaders Swinton Lions, but Keighley, who lie third, three points behind Workington Town but with a game in hand, know that they can’t afford to slip up if they are to guarantee home advantage in the play-offs.

Defeat at Workington last time out was only the Cougars’ second setback in six matches but maximum points from Friday night and their last home game against Whitehaven on Sunday, September 4 now seems imperative.

The New River Stadium, these days officially called the White Hart Lane Community Sports Centre, also plays host to a ‘masters’ tournament in the build up to the Cougars game, and a real ale festival, which takes place under the main stand throughout the evening.

Cougars will also be hoping that Academy coach Jeremy Crowther can lead his two Settle girls’ teams to glory in the Carnegie Schools’ finals tomorrow.