Key's Leeds have won two league games this season

Director of rugby Andy Key believes Leeds Carnegie need to earn another 25 points to stay in the Premiership.

With 10 games remaining, Leeds are bottom of the table on 14 points, five points adrift from safety.

"Having a magic number brings a danger of focusing too much on that figure," Key told BBC Radio Leeds.

"There's 50 points to play for, so if there was a magic number I think it would be half of those. That would put us on 39 and should keep us safe."

Key added: "There is a lot of games still to play and we have five games at home and five away so there is all to play for and we know we can win some of those.

"We clearly need to get better at home and if we can get that first win at Headingley then I really think things would snowball for us as we've been very close in recent weeks to breaking that duck.

"The maximum points we can get is 50, so we strive to do that and if we did, happy days."

Meanwhile Key has confirmed Jonny Hepworth remains firmly in the club's plans.

The 27-year-old centre has not featured in the last three games and not started a league match since the beginning of November.

"Jonny picked up a really deep dead leg about four weeks ago and we've had to deal with that properly. And we've also had other players stepping up and playing well with the likes of Seru Rabeni and Henry Fa'afili putting big markers down," he said.

"He is in a transitional period with us and we are working hard with him and he knows what we want from him.

"We see Jonny as definitely a player going forward for us. He's exciting, he has pace and raw talent.

"What we are trying to find at this level of rugby is the best position to utilise Jonny's skills the most.

"Jonny is still there, Jonny's still around the first team and Jonny is a important factor of our first team going forward."

Hepworth could start to feature more in the wing position for Leeds, especially with the news that Richard Welding faces another three weeks on the sidelines with an ankle injury.

"Richard is doing very well, but unfortunately the ankle injury was a bit worse than we first feared," Key explained.

"The medical team are doing a very good job on him and we are monitoring his progress. Listening to what they've said the likelihood is another three weeks and then Richard should be back."

Andy is a quality player and along with some of the other players are now certainly in the mix for the first team Andy Key on hooker Andy Titterrell

Key has also confirmed Andy Titterrell is now in first-team contention. The former England hooker is already into the second month of his original three-month deal and has yet to feature for the first team.

He was meant to start in the reserves game at Worcester on Monday, but that was cancelled due to the weather.

That, combined with the fact he was not registered to play in the Challenge Cup, means Titterrell was only played one match since leaving Gloucester in the summer.

"Andy, like a lot of other players, was very frustrated that that A game was called off because they all want to get game time and prove a point," Key said.

"Everyone in the squad wants that first-team shirt and credit to the players for that. Monday's game was a chance for certain players to put down a marker.

"With that game being off we now very to be very smart and careful with our selection. But Andy is a quality player and along with some of the other players are now certainly in the mix for the first team."

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