Eaton poised for rare outing at Barrow

4:40pm Thursday 14th August 2008

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Player-coach Barry Eaton is set for his first appearance in more than two months tomorrow night when Cougars head for a crunch clash at Barrow.

The veteran scrum half, 34, hasn’t needed to call on himself recently with the form of Jon Presley, Danny Jones and Craig Fawcett.

However, Presley – who has signed a new one-year deal – is struggling to shake off the injury that kept him out against Workington last week while stand-off Jones is also missing.

Eaton said: “He’s best man at his brother’s wedding, which we’ve known about for a while.

“We’ll miss him because he was cracking against Workington and played a massive role in defeating Doncaster the week before.

“I’m only in the squad through necessity really and if Jon doesn’t pull through I’ll be playing.”

The Keighley chief also has doubts over Sam Gardner (neck), Ollie Pursglove (shoulder) and Neil Lowe (virus) so Gavin Duffy, Karl Smith, Mick Fogerty and James Hutchinson have all also been included.

Eaton’s last match was Gateshead away in June but he is hoping for a better result than that 58-14 hiding tonight.

Barrow – currently sitting in second – won 44-18 a week earlier at Cougar Park and were tipped as title favourites back then.

However, they have lost four of their last five games to see their championship hopes fade and Eaton’s side are looking to add to their woes.

“Barrow had won 13 on the bounce when they came to our place and everyone was saying they were going to go all season unbeaten,” he said.

“We were 30-0 down at half-time and the game was over but they’ve had a blip recently.

“Now, if they want to go up automatically they have to beat us, otherwise Oldham will pip them, but equally it’s vital for us as we’re desperate to hold on to fourth.

“It’s a big match for everyone, We were disappointing against Barrow last time and the only side we’ve been poor against in both fixtures is York.”