ROY Mason says his Steeton side can tap into the feel-good factor around Keighley Cougars' takeover.

After an autumn of uncertainty, including players and staff not being paid, the rugby league side were taken over by former chairman Mick O'Neill last month and are now determined to revive the Cougarmania era from the 1990s.

Now Mason hopes Steeton, who groundshare Cougar Park, can have some of the feel-good factor rub off on them.

The Chevrons are 12th in Hallmark Security League Division One North, their first season at this level, on 35 points. But they faced a blank weekend last Saturday after their home clash with second-from-bottom Daisy Hill was postponed due to a frozen pitch. This game has since been re-arranged for Saturday, March 2.

Steeton hope to get back to action on Saturday when they travel to Daisy Hill in their latest league clash.

Mason says the new Cougars regime have already reached out to Steeton, adding the two teams will work closely together to make sure Cougar Park is used as a sports venue on both days of the weekend and throughout the year.

He also hopes the takeover will have a beneficial knock-on effect of improving attendances for Steeton.

Mason said: "The Keighley Cougars will be positive for us too.

"The chats I have had with the new regime, particularly chairman Mick O'Neill, have been positive. He said we are a big part of their plans. There is a bit of stability there now. The uncertainty at the Cougars has been unsettling for everybody.

"There is a feel-good factor. Cougar Park needs to a 12-months-a-year venue, everyone realises that.

"Mick O'Neill came into our changing room and shook all of our players by the hand. That was really nice of him. It should all work really well for us now. Our groundstaff have taken over as then Cougar Park groundstaff. It is good news all round,.

"Moving to Cougar Park has been a fantastic move for the club. It has worked out really well for us.

"We have learned a lot from our first season at this level. We are mid-table and a few people said at the start of the season that they expected us to be in the bottom two or three this year. It is nice to surprise a few people.

"This was always going to be a consolidation season this year. It took the players time to get used to be playing at a stadium.

"On and off the field, it has been a huge learning curve for us.

"Having last weekend off will probably have done us a little bit of good. We have only got a small squad. We have played more games already this year than we did in the whole of last year.

"There are one or two players running on empty at the moment, especially our younger players.

"It would be great for the town of Keighley to get behind us so we can kick on. We would like to get attendances in te 200 mark week in, week out.