Steve McCormack will renew old acquaintances with Sam Obst when Swinton travel to take on Keighley Cougars on Thursday (7.30pm).

The Lions coach was responsible for bringing the Aussie half-back over to England back in 2004 when he signed him for Whitehaven.

Obst, 31, spent seven years in Super League with Wakefield and Hull before joining Keighley this season.

McCormack is expecting a tough test from the team they beat to the Championship One title last season.

"We know quite a lot about each other," he said. "They have started the season really well having spent big money on some high profile players in Sam Obst and Michael Korkidas.

"I brought Sam over from Australia when I was at Whitehaven.

"He was in the reserve grade at Sydney Roosters and came over to my Whitehaven side and totally galvanised that team.

"He was outstanding and one of the best signings Whitehaven have made for a long, long time.

"He's a quality player and the main danger.

"We have a game plan for every team we play but the most important thing is to concentrate on ourselves.

"Certain parts of our game are a lot better than they were in the early part of the season.

"And that has made us a more difficult team to beat. We know how each other play and it's two evenly matched teams."

Prop Carl Forster will miss the game with a quad muscle injury while Ian Mort is unlikely to return after an serious facial injury.

--------------------- we should have had it wrapped up by half-time, but on at least three occasions, we bombed gold-plated try-scoring chances, but..............................

After the interval, we dominated the game, and the 26 point winning margin, flatters us not one bit!

Doddy with a hat-trick, and banging over five from seven with the boot, gives Steve Mac another nice headache on the selection front if Morty is fit for the next match!

Another team effort today, but if I had to pick our m-o-m, it'd go to Cunny, who was a major problem for the hosts from minute one!

The win puts a nice bit of daylight between the Hawks and us, and hopefully we can register another three points on the league ladder on Thursday (when we're on the box again) over at Keighley.

COME ON YOU LIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Spelly.