Eaton’s ready to put his first team boots back on. : Wed Jul 29, 2009 11:12 am
Keighley Cougars Head Coach Barry Eaton (pictured) has polished his playing boots just in case he decides to play in the crunch Co-operative Championship One clash with league leaders Dewsbury Rams.
He’s considering making his first senior outing of the season as the Cougars who are unbeaten at home in the league this year go head-to-head on satellite television with runaway leaders Dewsbury who haven’t lost a league game in 2009.
And Dewsbury have to win to take the league title and gain automatic promotion to the Co-operative Championship next year. Nothing else on the night will do.
The last time 35-year-old Eaton picked himself for first team duties was against Barrow Raiders last year but he has kept his eye in by turning out in eight reserve team games this year.
“So much will depend on the weather conditions,” said Eaton, who is a former Dewsbury player.
“I’m not going to say what the kind of weather has to be but its definitely part of my thinking at the moment.
“One thing’s for certain I’ll leave it late before finally making up my mind and naming a team”.
The Cougar stars have been putting the finishing touches to their preparations for Thursday evening’s showdown which will feature in front of SkySports’ cameras.
Added Eaton: “The boys have trained well. In fact we’ve done some extra training. Our game against Workington Town had been postponed so we had a session last Sunday and some of us went to watch Dewsbury’s game against Oldham.
“We’ll train again tonight (Tuesday) and then have an easier day on Wednesday.
“We’re virtually free from injury at the moment, with the exception of prop forward Craig Brown who is still in rehabilitation with a broken hand, and the players are in the right frame of mind.
“What happened at the Tetley’s Stadium hasn’t really been discussed. It’s a match we can’t do anything about and we recognised a long time ago that we contributed to what happened in the game”.
Eaton is hoping that the excitement of the occasion and the prospect of a competitive match will encourage more fans than usual to make their way to Cougar Park.
“While we appreciate and want to keep the people who follow us on a regular basis, it would be great if we could attract some new supporters and then make their experience so good that they want to keep coming to our games”.
He added: “You couldn’t have asked for a better scenario, second v first; two unbeaten records at stake; the league title there for the asking for one club and a big crowd.
“What a great occasion it’ll be and we’ll be hoping to contribute to that with a better performance than we delivered at the Tetley’s Stadium last month”.
