No favours for Agar tonight from old pal Eaton

The Welsh club head to East Yorkshire this evening knowing the Airlie Birds are the only team yet to pick up a Super League win.

However, Eaton, who played alongside Agar at Dewsbury for four years, insists he will be able to handle the pressure mounting at the KC Stadium.

“I’ve known Rich a while now and we’re good friends,” he said.

“We’ve exchanged a text or two this week and, as head coach of Hull FC, whoever it is, he is always under extra pressure.

“They demand success over there but Rich is a calm, confident and composed character who certainly knows how to deal with it.”

There were signs of improvement against Huddersfield Giants last week but Hull’s hopes of picking up a first victory at the fourth attempt have been hit with news Sean Long is set to miss the next two fixtures due to injury.

Crusaders, meanwhile, have failed to build on their impressive start against Salford, falling at Harlequins and at home to Bradford.

But Eaton, who left his Keighley head coach role over the winter to join Iestyn Harris in Wales, believes they can turn it around.

“The KC Stadium is a real tough place to go,” said the former Batley player.

“They will have a massive crowd behind them and they will be looking to post their first points on the board.

“But we felt we’ve taken a couple of steps back, certainly since the Salford game so are looking to put a performance in ourselves.

“We’ve had two close defeats since and we feel we have been giving ourselves enough opportunities to win those games.”

Police have been called to the home of Wakefield Trinity Wildcats to investigate the theft of the club’s scoreboard.

Staff of the club, which was recently brought out of administration by new owner Andrew Glover, were stunned when they arrived at the ground yesterday morning to find the scoreboard on the western terrace missing.

“It was a bit of a shock,” admitted general manager Davide Longo.

“We don’t know what’s happened but we’ve informed the police and they are coming this afternoon to investigate.

“Fortunately, our next home game is on Sky so we’ll be able to use their screen for the scores, although we could still use the old manual scoreboard.”

Four Co-operative Championship and two Championship One players will appear before the RFL Disciplinary Committee next week following incidents in last weekend’s Northern Rail Cup ties.

York City Knights’ Ryan Esders has been charged with dangerous contact and punching against Keighley Cougars, Featherstone prop Tony Tonks has also been charged with dangerous contact against Widnes Vikings.

Sheffield Eagles centre Menzie Yere is charged with a high tackle, while Batley’s Kris Lythes has been charged with head butting.