Cougars boss Barry Eaton believes next year’s Northern Rail Cup will provide the ideal test of his side’s Championship One title chances.

Fixtures were released on Monday and Keighley have been drawn in a group with Championship trio Toul-ouse, Dewsbury and York, as well as promotion rivals Rochdale.

Last year’s competition provided the perfect early-season boost, Cougars winning three of their four group games to cruise into the quarter-finals.

And Eaton is targeting a similar return next season in order to build early momentum. He said: “It’s a tough group because we’ve got three Championship teams in there with us but we also believe it will be a real good tester for us going into the league season.

“We feel we should be able to compete against them and if we can, it will give us a real good indication of where we are early on.

“The fact we qualified for the later stages last year gave us a real boost going into the season.”

Cougars start their Championship One campaign with a home game against London Skolars and Eaton is intrigued to see how the capital side go under new boss Joe Mbu.

He said: “He’s been a good player down there in London and got loads of Super League experience under his belt.

“It’s another young, up-and-coming coach, which is nice to see. Outside of Super League that’s something club’s should be made to look at – employing young British coaches.

“That’s a good move from their point of view and we wish them well. They’ll probably have a lot of freshness about them when we meet them in the first league game.”

Cougars have missed out on the signing of Neil Roden after the half-back decided to stay with their Championship One promotion rivals Oldham Roughyeds.

Eaton had been hopeful of luring his former Batley team-mate to Cougar Park but Roden informed him of the decision on Monday.

It leaves former Blackpool scrum half Tom Hemingway as the only remaining option in the bid to add reinforcements at pivot.

The 23-year-old Huddersfield academy product is currently weighing up an offer to play in Australia but is expected to make a decision in the near future.

But if Eaton misses out on both his main targets, the Keighley chief will not be forced into any panic buys and will instead let Ryan Smith, Luke Helliwell and Paul Drake battle it out for the two half-back spots.

“We’re still waiting on Tom Hemingway but Neil Roden has agreed to stay at Oldham so we wish him well.

“We’re waiting on Tom but I’m not too desperate because we’ve already got three half-backs who I’m confident can compete at this level.

“If we don’t manage to bring him in, we’ll go with what we’ve got. I’ve not targeted anyone else so there’s no point bringing someone in for the sake of it.

“If someone becomes available later we might think about it but we’re happy with what we’ve got.”

Cougars have also added a further fixture to their list of pre-season friendlies after announcing neighbours Bradford Bulls will visit Cougar Park on Friday, January 28 to contest the Joe Phillips Trophy.