WEST Hartlepool have the chance to go top of North-East One if they can grab victory over Old Brodleians.

The team have been playing well of late and their progress was halted after last weekend’s game against Northern was postponed due to weather.

This weekend’s game will go ahead and the team is the same one selected to face Northern last week, but with Adam Howard and Paul Moss coming in as replacements. Tom Dixon remains the long term injury victim after tearing a calf muscle in the warm-up at Rovers.

Hartlepool Rovers still find themselves five points a drift at the bottom of the table and if results don’t improve then relegation could well be a reality.

Their next game is away at Carlisle and after scoring a last-gasp winner in the 14-12 win last weekend against third placed Cleakheaton, Rovers will hope form stays true.

Rovers face some changes to last week’s winning side. Player coach Alan Brown and James Masshedar are unavailable. However the return of Liam Austwicke at full back is a ready replacement and Tom King steps up from the bench for the injured Steve Jones.

Mid-table Durham City have had a host of postponements this season and their last fixture was postponed against Carlisle but they will be hoping their away game against Driffield will go ahead so they can consolidate seventh place.

After a agonisingly close 11-6 defeat away at Bradford & Bingley in their last outing, Darlington Mowden Park will be all out to get back to winning ways against the team who are on level points with them.

After last week’s defeat Mowden’s hopes of promotion took a significant blow after falling ten points behind second place Bradford and a further 20 points behind the leaders Stockport.

This weekend’s opposition is Birkenhead Park who travel to Mowden today on the back of a convincing win against Lymm FC by 48-15.

Graham Seddon returns to the side for the unavailable Will Macaulay, while Kaiwaidau Simione is on the bench with inclusions for Ian Hodgson and Ollie Peters.

Pete Taylor, player-coach, said: “We need to get straight back into winning ways after the disappointment of losing to Bradford. They’re a big set of lads, very experienced side and we have to be on the top of our game”.

Middlesbrough go into their fixture on the back of a 20-3 defeat against bitter rivals Billingham who in the process closed the gap down at the bottom of the table to five points between the 11th and 13th placed sides.

The next game to be played at Acklam Park is today against Waterloo in another bottom-of-the-table clash.

Waterloo won their last game against Penrith in an enthralling tie overcoming the Cumbrian’s by 37-27.

After that famous victory over Middlesbrough, its back to business against Lymm FC for Billingham. No major changes to the squad to report with all major players included.

Blaydon will be reeling after a shock home defeat to then bottom club Cinderford last week. They go into today’s fixture knowing that a top-half finish could be under threat after slipping down to sixth place in the National League One.

Jim Huxley believes that the team should be “aiming for fifth place” and he expects a high scoring, competitive game. There is now only four points separating 11th place Coventry and Blaydon’s game this weekend is a daunting one away against promotion chasing Cambridge who are second in the table.

Rock moves to centre and Clark moves to the wing, Barber goes to the bench as does Yarnton.

Tynedale could capitalise on Blaydon’s tricky tie by leapfrogging their local rivals if they can overcome another promotion chasing team in London Scottish.

Any of three teams are in the running for promotion to the Championship with only two points between the three so the local teams will both find it tough to get anything from their respected games this weekend.

Darlington visit Wallsend today in Durham and Northumberland One with a number of changes to the side that convincingly beat Alnwick.

Despite a few weeks off, they are resting a number of players to ensure they are fresh for a top-of-the-table clash with Gateshead the following weekend.

After last week’s performance Darlington are confident, but do not underestimate Gateshead’s potential.

Darlington are only two points behind the leaders and they will hope to stay in touch of Gateshead with the next game set to be an important fixture in the season.

Darlington will hope that Stockton can do them a favour by taking points off Gateshead. The club find themselves in mid-table after defeat in their last outing against Ashington. Stockton will be looking to thwart the promotion chasers at Norton this afternoon.