HEAD coach Morgan Stoddart feels Cross Keys have potentially turned a corner going into the second half of their Championship campaign.

Keys beat Maesteg Quins 14-3 last Saturday to record a fifth win in eight matches, significantly boosting the club’s hopes of avoiding back-to-back relegations.

Four sides are set to go down at the end of the season – Keys sit fifth from bottom going into tomorrow’s trip to sixth-placed Glamorgan Wanderers (kick-off 2.30pm).

“We’ve won four of our last six and the only games we lost were against Pontypool (first) and Cardiff Met (fourth),” said Stoddart.

“It’s hard to say for definite if we’ve turned a corner, but things have been positive, so potentially we have.”

He added: “We had a new group of players at the start of the season, so it was always going to take time for everything to settle down.

“There were only three or four players in the squad for the Quins game who played for us last season, which shows you how big a turnover there was.

“We’ve got more experience in the team now, while the younger boys have got 11 or 12 games in them and are improving all the time.”

Stoddart has the luxury of a fully fit squad, including experienced forward trio Tom Lampard, Richard Cornock and Scott Andrews, to select from tomorrow.

“Wanderers just beat us when we played them at Pandy Park earlier in the season,” said Stoddart. “But we had a lot of injuries and players unavailable.

“I imagine it will be another close game this weekend, but hopefully we can continue the form we’ve shown in December and January.”

Scrum-half Rhys Meredith will make his debut for Keys after arriving from Risca.

Elsewhere, Bargoed can close the gap on Pontypool to six points with a bonus-point victory at Tata Steel.

And the only game in the Premiership sees bottom side Bridgend requiring a win away to Pontypridd to send Ebbw Vale back to the foot of the table.

Cross Keys (at Glamorgan Wanderers): C Povey; D Hitchings, A Tetley, C Nicholls, A Upton; L O’Brien, R Meredith; R Cornock, Z Hewlett, J Rogers, S Andrews (capt), H Reader, G Jones, J Thomas, S Gibson. Reps: C Vaughan, O Peddle, T Lampard, C Johnsey, K Hill.