COUGARS boss Craig Lingard will consider ringing the changes for the Challenge Cup clash at Barrow following last weekend's first defeat.

Keighley were despatched 46-22 at Gloucestershire All Golds in their second League One encounter of the season.

It was a chastening afternoon in the west country for the Cougars and their support, who carried high hopes into the new campaign after such an encouraging build-up.

Lingard was understandably unhappy with his side's display, and admitted that changes may be on the agenda for Saturday evening's fourth round cup trip to Cumbria (6.30pm kick-off).

"We'll certainly have to look at possible changes," he said. "There are guys sat on the sidelines who are champing at the bit to try and get in.

"And, as I've said to the players, if anyone comes knocking on my door this week asking why they're not playing then they can watch the 80-minute video of last weekend.

"There's some guys who have not played for a few weeks, so they're going to be off the pace.

"Unfortunately, we've not had a reserve team game in that time to let them get some game time under their belts.

"But we'll have to deal with that. We'll reassess at training this week and have a look at our 17 for Barrow."

One player who definitely won't be involved is Nathan Conroy, who appears to have been hit by a recurrence of the ankle injury he suffered in pre-season.

If that is the case, the former Bradford Bulls hooker could be looking at another four to five weeks on the sidelines.

Scott Law, meanwhile, missed the defeat in Gloucestershire after picking up a hamstring injury in training.

But Lingard says there are no excuses for what followed at the Prince of Wales Stadium.

He added: "It's always a loss to lose one of your starting 17, but with the quality of people we've got in the squad there's enough there to not let it affect you too much.

"I'm not using that as an excuse for why we performed as badly as we did.

"From man one to 17, I don't think anyone can hold their hands up and say they had a good game.

"You can carry one or two not having a good game but when the vast majority of the team – if not all the team – are having a bad game at the same time then that's what happens.

"When we came back to 22-22, from 22-10 down, we made a play-the-ball error on the second tackle to concede possession just when we were getting on the front foot.

"But that was just one error in a game of many errors, and I don't think our attitude was what it should have been for a game of that magnitude.

"Gloucester have been about a few years now, have got a coach who's been there three or four years and have a decent squad.

"So we knew what to expect when we went down there, and I'm not surprised that they put in a performance like that.

"I'm just surprised that we put in a performance like we did."