COUGARS championship winning hopes were dashed this week as most of the senior players walked away from the club.

Many are set to join championship rivals after staging an 'injury-strike' and refusing to play in last Sunday's game against Oldham. Coach Steve Deakin was forced to recruit amateur players from clubs in the Oldham area, faxing their registration forms direct to the game's Red Hall headquarters from the Lancashire club's ground.

Several of the players watched the game from the Gigg Lane stands and claimed they were unable to play because they were injured. At a fans meeting on Tuesday they maintained that they were injured, but added that 'things could have been different' if their pay had been in their bank accounts before the game.

This week club officials insisted that the money had been paid from the Cougar account, and the players were shown details from Barclays Bank, but because of the weekend it would not show up in the players' accounts until Monday.

"They were not due to be paid until the end of the month, and it was in their accounts on April 31," said general manager Gary Murgatroyd.

At the meeting several players also insisted that they were loyal to the club, but within hours they were on the move.

Jason Lee told fans he had not contacted other clubs and added: "At the end of the day I have a mortgage to pay and a wife and kids to feed."

Hoever, before the meeting he had approached club officials to ask for release forms and wanted the release rushing through because he had a chance of playing on Wednesday night. The release was agreed the following day and he came on as substitute for Halifax Under-21s in their 34-16 win over Salford.

Other players are reported to have sparked interest from clubs throughout the Northern Ford Premiership.

There were reports that Alan Boothroyd and Paul Harrison could be on the move to Batley, Danny Seal and James Rushforth were poised to head to Featherstone Rovers and Craig Murdock could be heading to Hull KR to be closer to his home.

There were also strong rumours that Ian Hughes and James Leatham could soon be lining up with Dewsbury.

Steve Deakin said: "It is very sad to see the breakup of the team, particularly as we were still odds-on to get a place in the play-offs despite all the injuries and everything that has happened."

He has spent a feverish week trying to recruit new players to plug the gaping holes in his squad, but yesterday (Thursday) had been unable to sign any new faces.

"One of the problems is that we are still a threat to other clubs who want to get into the play-offs and they are not willing to release players if they think we will be able to beat them to a place.

"Super League clubs also have heavy commitments over the next few weeks and are reluctant to let players go at this time."

After heaping praise of the fans for their incredible support of the team at Oldham his message was: "We will have a team and now is the time to get down to Cougar Park and give your backing to whoever is wearing a Cougar shirt - last week's support was fantastic but we will need the same again."

Asked if fans should bring their boots he said: "I don't think its quite that bad!"

Nathan Antonik could return from injury to play alongside Jason Ramshaw, Phil Stephenson and Chris Kirk who were the three regular first team players to turn out last week.

The game against Hunslet Hawks will be a real test of the club's fighting spirit and it is a game in which Keighley's scratch team has a chance of pulling off a big surprise.

"We have a chance to start building again and this time it will be a young team which I hope will be able to stay together for a very long time," Steve Deakin said.

Gary Murgatroyd added: "What we need now is for the people of Keighley and district to come down and give the club their support."

Match report & review

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