Featherstone Rovers boss admits he has a lot to fix up for short turnaround

Although Rovers managed to bounce back from their cup final defeat by beating Hunslet by two points Cooke was angry at the performance of his players, labelling it “unacceptable”, and reckons it is good they do not have to dwell on it too long.

Fev are back in action on Friday night when they host Halifax Panthers at the Millennium Stadium.

It will be a big test for Cooke’s men who have won their last four Betfred Championship matches, but are up against a Halifax team that have been one of the division’s surprise packages this year and come into the game two places and three points above Rovers.

“We’ve got a short turnaround and I suppose the good thing about this week is that the game can’t come quick enough because I want to eradicate the (Hunslet) game from my memory.

"We’re going to have to sit down with some individuals and as a group and we’re going to have to get people together because we just look on a different page.

"I’m just disappointed with the way we’ve played and I want to get to the bottom of that and I want the players to be honest and accountable as well as the staff.

"We’ll have some honest conversations, but we’ve got a lot to fix up.​

”We’ve got to be better with our skill and we’ve got to train better than we’re training. And we will do that.”

Featherstone suffered two injury blows in the Hunslet game, but Cooke is confident at least one of them will be available for the Halifax match.

He explained: "Caleb Aekins went to hospital, he got a nasty gash under his chin so we couldn’t stitch it.

"We lost Calum (Turner) as well who went into full-back so we did it tough, there’s no question. We managed to scrape two points, but I’m just not accepting that performance.

"Calum’s shoulder keeps coming out and going back in so he’s going to need a scan and we’re going to need to get to the bottom of that.

"Caleb will get stitched up at the hospital and he’ll come back in, we’ve got a big game on Friday.”