Keighley may have won ten of their last 14 matches in Yorkshire Division One, and nine straight at home, but their director of rugby Jeff Inman isn’t upwardly revising his prediction of a top-six finish.

With six matches remaining, the men from Rose Cottage are currently sixth but Inman has been around the county’s top division long enough to know its vagaries.

“You only have to look at Yarnbury’s 17-16 win against Sheffield last Saturday (bottom defeating second from top) to know that.

“Anyone can beat anyone in this division.”

From a below-average base of two wins from their opening six matches, Keighley, buoyed by “fortress Utley” have dispelled any thoughts of relegation with their impressive run of form.

And what has delighted Inman particularly is that they have maintained their winning mentality despite not being able to put their best side out on the field.

“The lads who have come in from the second team have done a job,” said Inman, “and we haven’t always been able to play players in their correct positions.

“My lad Stuart, for example, has had to play in the second row for the last two weeks.

“He isn’t a second row; he is a flanker but he has played there without any moaning or any complaints, and that is the kind of spirit that we have got at Keighley at the moment, and we can do well until the end of the season if we keep our focus.

“Ian Buckley has done well as a young lad”

Saturday’s match at Skipton, who are second from bottom and fighting against relegation, could represent a banana skin for Inman’s team, though.

But the former back-rower has been sufficiently impressed by his charges to say: “Derbies always have that unknown element but I’m fairly confident that we can go there and get the points.”

Keighley won the reverse contest 21-6 at Utley in late November, and they maintained their home run with a 19-12 victory over Selby last weekend.

Inman said: “We were excellent in the first half and played some expansive rugby but then had to make two or three changes, which was one or two too many for our rhythm and we lost our way without ever looking like we were going to lose the match.”