Keighley’s bench on Saturday at Castleford says it all about their growing strength in depth.

Stuart Inman, Ollie Sugden and Micky Phillips are the replacements faor the fourth-placed SSE Yorkshire Division One club, who are continuing to put pressure on the teams above them as they pursue their promotion dream.

“Strength in depth is the major difference this season,” said Keighley’s director of rugby Graeme Sheffield, whose club have won nine of their last ten league matches.

“But it doesn’t matter what Dave Lister, Kevin Young, Tim Brunskill or myself say on a Saturday.

“Games are won on Saturdays but leagues are won by what happens through the week - such as at training.”

Third-placed Driffield became the latest statistic in Keighley’s winning sequence when they lost 10-0 at Rose Cottage last weekend but they certainly enjoyed their day.

Sheffield added: “They didn’t leave our club until 8pm and we kept supplying them with jugs of ale.

“It was a good old-fashioned game of rugby and a good old-fashioned day all-round, and it is great that these things are still carrying on.

“We certainly appreciate it when it happens to us.”

As for the action on the field, Sheffield said: “It was a really good game with no quarter given and a good hard, clean game.

“Defences were on top on both sides and it was never going to be a points spree but we tried to keep as much as we could to our game-plan and move the ball around, whereas they just trundled it forwards.

“All of our team worked hard and we got our jest desserts.”

Inman’s return to the bench is probably the biggest reminder of Keighley’s strength in depth, and he has already shown this season what an impact he can make as a replacement.

It is also good that prop Ollie Sugden came through a second-team game at Utley against Scunthorpe Thirds last weekend with no ill effects from his neck injury, while Phillips is a reliable utility back who has also made a difference this campaign when he has come on.

As for second-from-bottom Castleford, the former club of Keighley centre Danny Price, Sheffield said: “They beat us twice the season after they came up but we have beaten them quite heavily in our last two meetings (including a 54-16 victory at Rose Cottage on October 8).”

However, he warned: “I don’t know what to expect from Castleford this weekend. They are quite an old team and their skipper has joined Heath.”

Keighley (at Castleford): D McGee; A Horsfall, D Price, M Ferrazzano, S Walker; A Brown, L Uren; C Spencer, W Armitage, G Fletcher, J Hannah, I Buckley, J Fulford, S Dyson, L Sugden. Replacements: M Phillips, S Inman, O Sugden.