The Cougars have called on expertise from an England international ahead of Sunday’s key home clash with promotion rivals Whitehaven.

Huddersfield Giants star Darrell Griffin helped lead training at Cougar Park last week as a favour to Keighley player-coach Jason Demetriou.

Demetriou played alongside Griffin at Wakefield between 2003 and 2005 and hopes the big prop’s quality can rub off on his troops.

Standing 6ft 4in and more than 18st, Griffin is an imposing feature in one of Super League’s stingiest defences, setting standards the Cougars are keen to aspire to.

“We had a great week of training last week and Darrell Griffin has been coming down to help work on areas of defence,” said Demetriou.

“It’s all about speeding us up now because the whole season has been about preparing us for the back end. We want to be playing our best footy when we face Swinton in July.

“I’m good friends with Darrell and he enjoys doing it. He offered to help out straight away when I got the job.

“It’s good to have a different voice – especially someone playing for Huddersfield, who have one of the best defences in Super League.

“A lot of what he’s telling the players is reinforcing things I’ve told them but it’s good for them to hear it from someone else.”

The Cougars have developed serious momentum heading into this weekend’s game, having won five on the trot in the league.

But Whitehaven are the only Championship One side to have beaten them this season, so Demetriou is under no illusions about the magnitude of the task facing his side.

He said: “The pressure is on but I’m not a believer of trying to keep pressure over sides. It’s there and you can’t change that.

“What I do is prepare them properly and if they stick to the processes we have put in place, they will win games.

“We want to get promoted and this is a massive game. Our preparation doesn’t change.

“We’ve watched the video and looked at areas we think we can exploit, as well as areas we need to improve.

“But you have to turn up with that extra intensity because we know they’ve turned us over already this season.”

A two-week break from action, due to the Cougars’ fourth-round Challenge Cup exit, has left Demetriou’s team refreshed for the game against Whitehaven.

Danny Lawton, Richard Jones and Luke Helliwell are all hoping to be fit for the Cougar Park contest.

Demetriou said: “We’re looking good. We should be at pretty much at full strength and we’re hoping to have a few bodies back. The weekend off has freshened everyone up and they’re ready to go.

“These are the games you want to be involved in. It’s all well and good scoring 50 points against lower-league teams but they don’t give you as much satisfaction as these games.”

Children can gain admission to Sunday’s game for just £1. The club are hoping to attract an attendance of over 1,000.

Meanwhile, Cougars legend Martyn Wood is the latest player to be inducted into the club’s prestigious Hall of Fame.

Wood, now living and working in Australia, is unable to attend tonight’s ceremony but a special video interview by playing colleague Jason Ramshaw will be shown. Proceedings start at 7.30pm.

Demetriou said: “It would be great if we could get a couple of hundred people down for the event. He was a great player for the club and deserves to be recognised.

“The event takes place after our scheduled training session too, so the majority of the first-team squad will be there.”