Stankevitch battles against injury crisis

Rochdale Hornets coach John Stankevitch continues to battle against a horrendous injury list as he searches for his side’s first win of the Co-operative Championship One season.

Rochdale lost 30-22 at Whitehaven last week. Stankevitch had only 17 fit players in his entire squad for the trip to Cumbria, and things got even worse once the match began.

He said: “We picked up five injuries but I’m fairly hopeful some of them will be available this week.

“There’s nothing we can do – we just need to muck in for each other.”

He continued: “If you put things into perspective, it was an outstanding performance at Whitehaven. We only had 17 fit players and three or four of those probably aren’t going to be regular players this year.”

On this week’s challenge, Stankevitch said: “We need more of the same this week. We’re not a team that lacks confidence. We’re not feeling sorry for ourselves.

“We’re prepared to work hard, but as a group we can only do so much in the position we’re in at the moment. We’ll see what team we can get and adjust the game-plan accordingly.”

Richie Hawkyard (hamstring) and Neil Holland (knee) are definitely missing for Swinton.

Lions coach Steve McCormack said: “I watched Rochdale two weeks ago against Workington and they were very impressive.

“They’ve got a good side with some talented players, and by all accounts they had a good effort against Whitehaven. Local derbies are always tough games and this won’t be any different.”