Preview: South Wales v Blackpool

Paul Ballard makes his return to South Wales on Monday as the Scorpions search for a fourth victory in Co-operative Championship One.

Coach Anthony Seibold said: “Blackpool will pose a big threat to us, though it will be another opportunity to benchmark ourselves against the top couple of teams.”

He added: “We are a very competent team who have shown that we belong in this division in a short space of time.

“Collectively we have worked hard and this has been shown by our performances on the pitch.”

Blackpool coach Martin Crompton has challenged his squad to improve on last week’s 48-12 win over Doncaster.

Crompton said: ““I wasn’t that happy with the performance. I felt as though we lost our way a bit, and the discipline was a big factor for us. We were a bit scrappy for the majority of the game, but Doncaster also gave us a very good game.

“Sometimes we’ve got to put in an ugly performance to get the result, and there’s a lot of self-belief in the team at the moment. We’ve won tough and we’ve won flashy this year. It’s pleasing that we can do that when we need to do, but you want to play that classy football all the time – even if in reality it is impossible.”

Jonny Walker returns to the Panthers’ squad after playing for Wigan last week. Crompton said: “There’ll be a few changes from last week, and getting  Jonny back is helpful because I’m expecting a big physical challenge from South Wales.

“They’ve started off very well. They look to be a very tough team to beat, and I’m not expecting anything different on Monday.

“There’s a big motivation for them to beat us as we’ve still got a 100 per cent record in the league.”