Hunslet v Keighley Cougars: Parksiders hope to put home run of games to good use

After occupying pole position in the early weeks of the season, the Parksiders have slipped to fourth.

Victory over visitors Keighley Cougars this evening (7.30pm) would lift them into second spot, just a point behind Whitehaven.

After six away fixtures in the opening nine rounds of the league campaign, Hunslet will play at South Leeds Stadium on successive Fridays and coach Gary Thornton is aiming to make home advantage pay.

“It’s good to have a home game, it has been a while,” Thornton said.

“We are looking forward to it and we need to play well.

“We picked up a great win at Newcastle [two weeks ago], but we’ve not been particularly good at home so we are looking to turn that around and put in a good performance on home soil.”

Hunslet lost their most recent home league match, to London Skolars and were also beaten by visitors Workington Town in the 1895 Cup.

Thornton admitted: “Our last two home games were poor and we’re looking to improve on that and put those to bed.

“We’ve had a couple of slip-ups and we can’t afford any more.”

Cougars are bottom of the table, on minus one point, but have won five and drawn one of their nine games so far.

“Without their points deduction they would be just behind us,” Thornton pointed out.

We can’t take them lightly.

“They have got some good wins under their belt; they haven’t performed particularly well the last few weeks, but before that they knocked off some good teams.

“We have got to take everybody seriously and be on top of our game every week.”

The long turnaround was not ideal for Hunslet after their win at Newcastle.

Thornton said: “I hope it’s not a negative, we have worked hard on some stuff we needed to improve.

“It’s always nice to keep the momentum going when you’ve had a win, especially a good win like that, but it has given Adam Robinson extra time to get his rib injury sorted and we’ve not been resting.

“We’ve been working hard and we are looking forward to it. We won’t have the Halifax dual-reg boys this week, but just about everybody is fully fit now.”