It’s make or break for the Cougars as they prepare for possibly their most important game of the season so far.

Toulouse return to Cougar Park tomorrow evening, with head coach Barry Eaton calling the clash a ‘must-win’ if his side are to stand any chance of staying in the Championship.

With nine points currently separating them from safety, Keighley effectively need to win three games more than rivals Dewsbury between now and the end of the season, while also winning two more than Whitehaven.

The Cougars have already run Toulouse close on two previous occasions this season, including a defeat at home in the Challenge Cup, and approach tomorrow’s showdown in confident mood.

Eaton said: “Obviously, everybody always says the next game is the most important but, in this case, we have to win to stand any chance of staying up. There’s no getting away from that.

“We’ve played them twice already and lost by eight points on one occasion and nine on the other, so hopefully we can overturn that deficit and convert it into a win.

“The last few performances have been good and there’s no two ways about it, if we emulate the performance we put in against Featherstone last time out, we will win.

“Our completion rate, our discipline and our defensive shape were all very good and although we lost 24-6, we should have had more.”

Survival would be a monumental achievement for Eaton and his players, having been slapped with a nine-point deduction at the start of the season after the club entered administration.

Take that deduction out of the equation and the Cougars would currently be level on points with Dewsbury, having played one game less.

But Eaton also highlighted the mental effect of the setback and is absolutely certain his team would have picked up more points if the penalty had not been hanging over their heads.

“The points deduction has made a big difference to our mindset during games,” he said.

“When games are in the balance, rather than setting our stall out to get the bonus point, we’ve often had to go for it because we know we need the points.”

Keighley have been boosted after receiving commitments from the majority of the current squad, regardless of what level they play at next season.

Eaton is hoping to have all contracts tied up before the final game of the season against Widnes on Sunday, August 22.

“I’ve spoken to just about all of them now and where I haven’t spoken to a player directly, I’ve spoken to their representatives,” he said.

“The next stage is to sit down and sort out contracts and I’ll do that once the playing budget for next season has been finalised.

“Every indication shows most of them want to stay regardless of what level we play at and I don’t envisage many problems. I have built this squad and don’t want to let it fall apart.”