DOUGLAS V NEWTON LE WILLOWS

The indication that Winter has passed is shown that Douglas this weekend play their penultimate home league fixture of the season against Newton Le Willows. The other shore sign that Spring is officially here being that the temperature has dropped by about ten degrees and there is the threat of snow for the weekend.

Subject to the vagaries of the weather and specifically frost the game at Port e Chee promises to be an entertaining and intriguing encounter as at the start of the season there was little to choose between the two sides when they met across the water. Although Douglas suffered a mid season blip they have recently come back to form plenty entertaining attacking rugby. Newton Le Willows though are still in the promotion hunt albeit as second favourites behind Wallasey and Manchester Wanderers and will keen to keep the pressure on the top two sides.

The down side for Douglas is that although they will be strengthen by the availability for selection of several members of the pack who missed last weeks narrow defeat to Sefton, notably  Terry Ditchfield, Dave Solly, Martin Higgins and Richard Forster they are still likely to be missing influential flanker Pete Moorhouse. Added to the casualty list this week is also likely to be No.8 Seb Jeanneau who required stitches last week after it appeared that Sefton wished to re-enact a scene from Reservoir Dogs on the Frenchman.

The main change in the backs should hopefully see the return at scrum half of Bobby Ranscombe who has made a big impression in recent weeks. His half back partnership with John Hill has been crucial to the return to form of the Douglas back line and it is disappointing that the promising pairing is again likely to be disrupted by John’s hamstring injury. That said team news from Douglas at time has the life expectancy of a hedgehog on the M25 so any spectators turning up for the match on Saturday do not be surprised to see some additional changes to the line up.

Kick off this week is 2.00pm any supporters can expect it to kick off strictly on time rather than be subject to a very late change as per two weeks ago. It was tempting to ruminate on the fact that this is because the match is being officiated by a member of the local police force and the last match by a member of the post office however as I wish to continue receiving dodgy packages in the post without interference from either party I am passing the opportunity over. Equally I am passing over the opportunity to predict a winner as I believe the game could go either way so it is time to sit firmly on the fence.

Gethin Taylor