Darlington Mowden Park, who visit Fylde, also hoped to bring in a Newcastle player in former West Hartlepool scrum half Michael Young as Andy Foreman broke a thumb last week and will be out for at least a month.

Young is registered with Tynedale but has been kept out by Ross Sansom and Newcastle were happy for him to make the switch. But Tynedale said they planned to play Young in their next three games.

With Rob Stewart's knee swelling up whenever he trains, Mowden have named Chris Clark at scrum half.

They expected to be without Phil Dawson, but Newcastle have said he can play, despite apparently needing a shoulder operation.

Skipper Jamie Connolly and Gareth Kerr have been ruled out by hamstring injuries, so Martin Featherstone plays at centre with James Clark and Iain Dixon on the wings.

Tom Wilkinson is at full back as Mowden don't expect to see Alex Tait again because of England Under 21 commitments.

Ross Batty continues at hooker as Sean Buckley steps up his comeback in the second team and Tony Begovich starts at blind side as Scott Riddell is unavailable. Luke Monument comes in for broken leg victim Ciaran McNicholas.

Although Mowden remain third, they are 27 points behind Tynedale and 12 adrift of Leicester Lions yet only seven ahead of West Park St Helens, who are eight places below them. Then comes another ten-point gap to the bottom three.

It means defeat today could see Mowden slip a few places and they will have to keep tabs on former Durham University winger Ollie Brennand, the division's leading try scorer with 12.

Foreman leads the way with seven for Mowden, while Jon Benson is second in the points-scoring chart with 142. Leicester's Jon Boden is top with 185.