THE cavalry are returning for York Acorn ARLC ahead of their top-of-the-table clash at Bradford Dudley Hill.

Tom Hill, Chris Rushworth, Adam Endersby, Steve Mackley and Joe Porter are all in the frame as the Blue and Golds aim to strike a telling blow at the summit of National Conference League division one.

Dudley Hill and Acorn are locked on 22 points with 11 wins from 14 games and head coach Scott Rhodes is keen for his players to improve markedly from last weekend’s disappointing 38-12 loss at fellow promotion hunters Wigan St Judes.

Rhodes revealed he had drilled into his team the need to respond positively to that setback at training and said: “We had a bit of a heart-to-heart before the session.

“We were very disappointed with last week’s performance – both defensively and in attack. It was the poorest we have been all year.

“Dudley away will be tough but I think we need the challenge. Against the top teams, and during our Challenge Cup run, we raised our game. I have got a strong squad from which to pick and there are no excuses.”

Acorn will be without Matt Withers – who is out for the season with a cruciate ligament injury.

Aaron Thompson could also miss the rest of the campaign after snapping a tendon in his finger.

Rhodes added: “This is a big game for the club and the team.

“Over the last few weeks we have had a few indifferent results and we have lost a couple as have Dudley Hill. I’ve put that down to summer rugby – we’ve had a lot of blood injuries and a lot of players have been away.

“We have a number of players returning and it all helps. We have struggled with numbers over the last couple of weeks but we had 25 to 30 down to training earlier in the week.”

Getting off to a good start is key for Heworth, who travel to nearest NCL division two rivals Eastmoor Dragons.

While the Villagers are yet to win this season, or indeed since November 2010, and are bottom of the table, Eastmoor have only managed two victories and the tie represents a reasonable chance for coach Stuart Brown and his men to finally to get off the mark.

Club spokesman Ken Sykes said: “We should have a reasonable squad out and it will be a similar team to that which played East Leeds (and lost 52-6). We are optimistic and will give it our best shot.

“If we go a couple of tries down the confidence seems to disappear so a good start is very important.”

He added: “We battled well last week and did not have a great deal of luck. They had some very good players and Eastmoor have one or two decent players. They have had a couple of reasonable results.

“Every team is going to be tough and, from our point of view, we will battle and get our heads down.”

York Lokomotive coach Liam Watling is confident his side can kick on after gaining their first point of the Yorkshire Men’s League season with a 10-10 draw against Stanningley ‘A’.

The two teams meet again this Saturday in a rearranged fixture and Watling is optimistic his men can edge it this time. “It was good last week, to say they’re a well-established club and team. It was good to watch,” he said.

“They had decent forwards but we were the more free-flowing team and were beating them in the back division, but when we thought we would pull away it started raining and that played in their favour.

“We’ve got a few players returning this weekend and hopefully we’ll put on a good show.”

York Acorn ‘A’ have a top-of-the-table group three clash with East Hull in the Yorkshire Men’s League, while Heworth ‘A’ travel to North Yorkshire Stallions.