We stick together says Featherstone Rovers head coach Paul Cooke

Rovers find themselves second from bottom in the Betfred Championship after suffering a fifth defeat in six matches, albeit narrowly, at Oldham last Sunday.

Now they face a short turnaround with their next game at home to a resurgent York Knights this Friday (kick-off 6pm) and head coach Cooke believes team spirit and togetherness is one of the keys to improving matters.

He said: “There’s no blame attached to any individual players. We stick together and we stay together – and we will and get better and iron out some deficiencies that are glaringly obvious to us, particularly when we haven’t got the football.

"We are going to alternate training this week, we’re going to get them into a pool and some recovery and do our review away from the club so it will be a change of environment, which will stimulate the players, we hope, mentally.

"Then we’ll have a team run Thursday so there will be little preparation in terms of running through plays.

"It’s a big game for us again then we’ve got Toulouse and then the players will get some time off.

"Our focus now is on reviewing the (Oldham) game, getting better and making sure we are ready to go on Friday against York.”

Rovers have been given a chance of quick revenge against Oldham, having been drawn away to them in the semi-finals of the 1895 Cup, with the tie to take place over the weekend of May 17 and 18.

"I’m looking forward to it,” added Cooke.

"It’s a knockout game of rugby league to go to Wembley to play at the iconic Wembley.

"I wasn’t interested in who we got and where we got them.

"A home draw would have been the best result for us, no matter who we got. We’ve not got that so we’ll come away from home and if we play like we did (on Sunday) and eradicate a couple of things then we’ll be okay.”