Kingstone Press League 1 Preview: North Wales Crusaders v Rochdale Hornets

Reflecting on a fine win at Oldham, North Wales Crusaders coach Anthony Murray was pleased.

“It was a great win for us last week considering Oldham might have gone top, so there was a lot at stake for both teams. Fortunately for us we came out on the right side of the result,” he said.

“Rochdale are another in-form team and are playing really well. We seem to have a habit of pulling off a really good result and then not playing well the week after so we’re looking for a little bit of consistency in our performance this week and we really need to back the Oldham performance up.”

Loose forward Gary Middlehurst and second row Alex Thompson both have ankle injuries while wing Kevin Penny, on dual registration from Warrington, also picked up an injury and is doubtful. Centre Stuart Reardon is still out with a knee ligament problem but wing Scott Turner and Sam Peters, on loan from Leigh, are due to return.

Looking back on Rochdale Hornets’ defeat at York City Knights coach Ian Talbot said: “We went in with a bit of a depleted side but I still thought we had enough to win the game. The first half performance was very poor; we improved in the second half but left ourselves too much to do.

“North Wales are one of the best sides in the competition so we’ll be up against it. They taught us a lesson when we went to their place in the cup so we’ll have to be at our best.”

Wing Matty Dawson returns to St Helens but centre Lee Paterson should be available and centre Dave Hull could also return.