CHAIRMAN Gary Fawcett has revealed Cougars want to extend the deals of SIX more players until the end of 2018.

Scrum half Matty Beharrell, who was Keighley's match winner with a late drop goal in the friendly against Bulls, put pen to paper last week to tie him to the club for an extra 12 months.

He joined Adam Ryder and Nathan Kitson on two-year deals and the club hope to negotiate terms for an additional season with six of their team-mates.

The strategy falls in line with Cougars' stated aim of a top-five play-off spot this year under new coach Craig Lingard, building to a serious promotion challenge the following campaign.

Fawcett said: "We were keen to sign Matty as good half-backs are hard to find. He’s only 22, he has a bright future ahead of him and we’re hoping that bright future is with Cougars.

"Craig ear-marked seven players (already on 12-month contracts) he wanted signing on two-year deals and Matty was one of them.

"So I’m now working away at the other six and hopefully most, if not all, will agree an extension."

This season is the first time the chairman has taken on contract negotiations, with Lingard preferring to take a back seat.

Fawcett said: "Craig doesn’t want to negotiate with players as he doesn’t want any favourites.

"He has a chat with the player first on how he wants to play rugby, the set-up etc and if the player is still interested I take over the negotiations."

The Cougars chief also confirmed the club are still interested in bringing over an Aussie prop recommended to them by England coach Wayne Bennett.

Fawcett said: "He has no passport issues and we have a job secured for him outside of rugby, so he knows if he comes over here he is still going to have money if he is not playing. We're waiting for his response."

Meanwhile, the Cougars chief admits he was delighted to gain a late victory over local rivals Bradford Bulls.

Following Keighley's 25-24 victory in the Joe Phillips Memorial Trophy, he said: "We've played Bulls before and it's either been the first team that has drubbed us by about 80 points back in the nineties and early 2000s or we've beaten their second team.

"On Sunday we were up against their first team. I know Bulls have really been through the mill and are just trying to get things right but I said to the new owners we were expecting to beat them and our guys did the job."

Fawcett also labelled the 2,131 crowd for a friendly as 'awesome'.