YORK Knights head coach Andrew Henderson is “very much looking forward” to facing off against old employers Keighley Cougars tomorrow night (7.30pm).

Henderson spent last season as the West Yorkshire club’s Head of Rugby, alongside coach Rhys Lovegrove, before departing for York in October.

During his time there, he was influential in attracting stars including former Hull KR and Bradford Bulls half-back Dane Chisholm, who has made a flying start to his career at Cougar Park, as Keighley gained promotion to the Betfred Championship after a flawless season.

The Cougars, who have made a better start to their first season back in the second tier since 2015 than many predicted, will visit the LNER Community Stadium off the back of consecutive victories against Bradford Bulls and North Wales Crusaders, and Henderson is excited to face off against his former club.

“I’m very much looking forward to welcoming Keighley to our club,” he enthused. “They’re great people down there.

“I thoroughly enjoyed the time that I got to work there. I thought the owners, Ryan (O’Neill) and Kaue (Garcia), were fantastic people to work for. They put a lot of trust in me, and they certainly looked after me and my family.

“I thoroughly enjoyed my time there, as well as working with the playing group that were there. They’re a great group of players, good people, with a great young head coach in Rhys Lovegrove as well.

“I’m very, very much looking forward to welcoming him to the LNER Stadium [tomorrow] night, but I’m obviously hoping that they’re not going to come away with smiles on their faces because we want to get a job done there.”

The experience is likely to be a strange one for Henderson, and he admits that while he is familiar with Lovegrove’s playing style, the Keighley coach is equally so with his.

“It’s going to be a little bit strange, but again, I suppose I know a little bit about how Rhys coaches, and he knows a lot about me.

“We’ve probably got a lot of similarities in what we do, so it will make for an interesting contest. But it’s one that I’m very much looking forward to.

“Looking at Keighley, they’ve hit a bit of form in recent weeks.

“They’re coming off the back of back-to-back wins - it was a brilliant performance and result at home against Bradford, they really put them to the sword. And then they’ve backed it up with a decent performance against the Crusaders at home as well in the Challenge Cup.

“So I think they’ll be coming here with some confidence and some belief that they can get a job done.

“But I’m also equally confident that our boys [can win]. Sunday’s game, I’m hoping that will be a bit of a catalyst for us.

“I think we’ll take a lot and learn a lot of good lessons from Sunday about what we need to deliver in terms of our process and what we need to execute.

“If we can back that up again then I think we can get the job done.”