COUGARS head over the Pennines on Sunday with confidence sky-high -- after pulling off a two-point victory over Widnes.

Coach Lee Crooks was delighted with the result, but is working on further big improvements in the performance of his team. "I was very, very pleased with the result, but still disappointed in the way we played. We will have to perform better on Sunday, but confidence is now high and that makes a very big difference."

But the victory was far from clear-cut as the Keighley side allowed twice squandered eight-point leads.

"When we get into that position we should kill sides off, and not let them back into the match.

"Having said that Widnes were a very strong side and it was one of our better performances."

But Crooks has refused to let his team rest and called for another big improvement.

"I have confidence in the team, and it will probably be unchanged for Sunday, but there is still about 40 per cent improvement to come from them. I have said that if players come into the side and perform well they will get another chance, and they all worked well on Sunday."

He picked out the right-wing partnership of Pat Rich and Chris Wainwright who saw the biggest improvement.

"They were playing with a lot more confidence than in previous weeks and I think they will get better week by week."

This weekend he hopes to see a major improvement in the side's away form and they have been working on improved mental preparation to make sure they are in the correct frame of mind.

"I haven't been able to fault their physical preparation in training, but they just haven't look like the same team away from home. With their new confidence I expect that to change," Crooks said.

He has called on his players to cut out simple errors.

"Last week we made 14 handling errors and suffered 15 missed tackles. We need to get those statistics into single figures. We also need to complete at least 75 per cent of our sets of six tackles.

"If we can get those basics right we will start winning matches and be worthy of a top-five place."

n Keighley Schools teams play in the finals of the English Schools Cup at Cougar Park tomorrow (Saturday).

There will be a feast of youth rugby throughout the day starting with Keighley Under-12's against a French touring team at 10.30. A West Craven Under-14's side will take on another French XIII at 11.30.

But the real action starts at 1.30 when Keighley Under-16's meet Doncaster in their cup final followed by the Under-13's v Wakefield at 3pm.

"We hope to see a really big crowd to support the lads, they have done the town proud,"said Jason Ramshaw.

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