Dewsbury Rams head coach Lee Greenwood is looking forward to seeing his side take on League 1 opposition.
On Sunday the Rams face Keighley with a 2pm kick off at Cougar Park.
On the upcoming friendly, Greenwood said: “I am looking forward to seeing my side take on Keighley. We haven’t played Keighley since I have come to Dewsbury so it’s a different test. It gives us a chance to concentrate on ourselves.
“When you come up against Championship opposition you look at them and think we are going to meet you again twice. So you’re thinking more about them and how you’re going to counteract what they are doing.
“Sunday though whilst we aren’t bothered about what they are doing we know they’ll create us some issues. They are going for an expansive game plan this year Keighley where they’ll be throwing the ball about. I’d be surprised if they didn’t cause us problems but at the same time we aren’t going to worry about them. We are just going to concentrate on ourselves.
“I am hoping we see improvements from Boxing Day with the things we weren’t good at. We just need to step it up a gear really and then with Bradford coming it then leads us into Leigh nicely for our first league game.
“Keighley haven’t had a friendly yet so it won’t be easy. They are hoping to come into a new good period for the club, they are making some big noises and they want to get out of league 1. So it’s a good chance for them to take on a Championship club at home.
“I think the big thing is not worrying about Keighley in terms of we won’t be facing them unless in the cup. When players come up against Championship opposition in pre-season it’s almost like they try too hard to prove they can handle it at this level so to get picked next time. We won’t talk about Keighley, we will talk about the things we are working on.
“Although I don’t want to lose its the performance which I’m interested in. We can’t turn up and not worry about Keighley at all. Let their players run straight through us, do that and we aren’t going to be happy, we will be disappointed. We want to be good in defence.
“Some of the tries Boxing Day we let in were disappointing and on the other side there were moments in attack where we let Batley off of the hook.”
Greenwood has been impressed with his team’s attitude in training and says he already has a lot of belief in his side.
He continued: “I have got a lot of belief in this team, I have seen them in training and I know if we do what I know we can do well, we will be a good side.
“We did a block where we worked the players hard. I won’t say it was all running but we did a lot of fitness work. We packed a lot in before Christmas in that six weeks. It was a big effort from the lads on that team.
“We are now into week to week rugby. So that means we won’t be doing as much fitness work, wrestle stuff just because you have a game at the end of the week. We call this phase two now where it’s about getting that sharpness and topping people up.”
On the injury front, Greenwood gave an update: “Jason Walton won’t make it, he might be fit a few weeks into the season.
“We are leaving it open for Joe Martin and Chris Annakin. They didn’t play Boxing Day but if they train all week they could feature.
“James Thornton and Rhys Davies didn’t play Boxing Day so they will get a chance to show what they can do.
“We will be smart in what we do, you need to have a balance because you need to give lads a good chance. See who can play three friendlies and who isn’t ready for that.
“We are flexible in numbers at the moment. I am going with a 20 man squad again. I think if you go above 20 you get lads sitting on the side lines.
“I thought it worked well on Boxing Day both sides going with 20. I’ve no idea what Keighley will do but we will stick with 20 to give folk a fair shot.”
