COUGARS chairman Gary Fawcett has branded last Sunday's defeat to Swinton as unacceptable and insisted that failure to win promotion back to the Championship is simply "not an option".

Within the space of eight days, Paul March's side have been dumped out of the Challenge Cup and the iPro Sport Cup at the hands of Kingstone Press League One rivals Barrow and Swinton respectively.

Fawcett was left devastated by the 24-22 home loss against the Lions as the Cougars had fixed their sights on reaching the final of the newly-formed competition at the Summer Bash in Blackpool.

But they now have only promotion to play for and are not back in action again until the League One opener at home to York City Knights on Good Friday.

The loss to Swinton, coming a week after the Challenge Cup exit at Barrow, has left Fawcett concerned and both he and chief executive Neil Cullen will meet with March this week to discuss recent performances.

In a damning appraisal of the two cup defeats, the chairman said: "It was very disappointing to be defeated by Swinton Lions.

"We had set two objectives at the beginning of the season, which were to win the League Cup and to get promoted back into the Championship.

"At the start of the season, we felt we had the strongest side in this league – but our performances have not demonstrated this so far.

"It's not all right to score spectacular tries against amateur sides such as East Leeds but then fail to deliver against teams who will be competing for promotion against us this season.

"Both the Barrow and Swinton games were rehearsals for the league games. We have fallen short in both and have only ourselves to blame for this."

The Cougars scored four tries against Swinton but conceded the same number and a late penalty from Lions full back Chris Atkin condemned March's team to a two-point defeat.

Fawcett said: "What I will say is that the team performed for most of the match and were dominant against Swinton for long patches.

"However, one major concern is that defensively we switched off three times and we were punished each time.

"The other major concern is that we had a long period of intense pressure on the Swinton line and we didn't convert it into points.

"Despite scoring first in the match, we then let Swinton get away from us and then let them and the clock beat us."

Fawcett admitted that being without a game ahead of the league opener against York is far from ideal.

He said: "As we are out of both the Challenge Cup and the League Cup, we now have just over two weeks before our next competitive game. This gives us time to ensure we are prepared for the promotion push.

"But frankly, I didn't want three weeks without a game and I do not think it's beneficial at all at this stage of the season."

Significantly, Fawcett said talks would take place this week between the club's hierarchy and March about ways in which Cougars will seek to fight for promotion this season.

"The chief executive (Neil Cullen) and I are seeing Marchy this week to assess what needs to be done to make sure we are beating League One teams consistently throughout this season," said Fawcett.

"We will be promoted at the end of the season – failing this objective is simply not an option."