ROSS Peltier admits it will be weird returning to Cougar Park on Sunday.

The 24-year-old only left Keighley in September, signing a two-year deal for Bradford Bulls, for whom he made his debut last Sunday in a man-of-the-match display at Huddersfield Giants.

He might not go into the wrong dressing room, but prop Peltier confessed: "It will be a strange experience because I have only played one match for the Bulls and I still have a lot of friends down at Keighley and will be playing against them."

Jamaican international Peltier made 37 appearances for Cougars from 2013 to 2016, scoring ten tries, but he said: "I only really had three years there but although we didn't get promotion, we at least won some silverware with the iPro Sport Cup.

"They have a new coach in Craig Lingard, who I don't really know, and, like the Bulls, have a lot of youngsters and are going through a rebuilding phase.

"Promotion is the aim for them, but with Toronto Wolfpack coming into the division and the sides who came down (Workington Town and Whitehaven) it is going to be difficult."

When Bradford-born Peltier, who has also played rugby union for Bradford & Bingley, signed for the Bulls in the autumn, it seemed like a dream move.

Playing for a club that he supported when he was a kid – he was even a ball boy there – and finally being back in the full-time game after an initial three years at Huddersfield Giants from 18 to 21, he must have thought that all of the cards had landed in his favour.

Peltier, who has scored three tries in his six international appearances, even opted not to work in order to get himself fit for the start of pre-season with the Bulls.

He admitted: "I am so much fitter now than I was last season, but what I wasn't counting on was Bulls going into liquidation and the players not being paid on top of me deciding not to be paid before that.

"I have done everything since leaving the Giants in terms of work.

"I have worked in advertising for the Telegraph & Argus (telesales), I have been a builders' apprentice, I have even made cardboard boxes, and I was working as a spot welder in Keighley, which was convenient for Cougars in terms of working in the morning and being able to get to training in the evening.

"After signing for the Bulls, I decided to give myself some time off work to get myself fit, but what I wasn't counting on was the Bulls going into liquidation.

"That meant that I didn't receive a pay cheque from September until after Christmas, but I have managed to keep my head above water with money that I had previously saved.

"The RFL have also helped us out but I am hoping to get my first pay cheque from the Bulls at the end of the month."

However, being in adversity as a squad has had a benefit for the Bulls that might not otherwise have occurred.

Peltier explained: "If anything, what we have gone through has made us that much tighter as a group of players.

"Although the average age of our squad is only about 20, you could see last Sunday that we are all fighting for each other.

"If any of the lads get into trouble then we will defend them.

"We went into the match undercooked but the fact that we weren't thrashed, as some people thought we would be (they lost 28-10), has given us confidence and now we are looking to win at Keighley.

"We have met the new owners (Graham Lowe and Andrew Chalmers) and, unlike the past two regimes at Odsal, they are rugby people.

"We are just taking things a game at a time and we are not really thinking yet about the first league match at Hull KR."