The influential trio all missed the 48-13 defeat at Coventry in the club’s last National One outing a fortnight ago, and the management team have reshuffled their starting line-up as Elthamians enter the home straight of their first season in National One.

There are just six league games remaining and head coach Sam Howard wants to finish the season with a flourish. “The Coventry result is well and truly done and dusted,” he said. “It’s been a very stop-start few weeks due to the snow and the internationals, so we are looking forward to a run of six games in a row and hopefully start with a win on Saturday.

“It’s always nice to have quality experienced players back into strengthen the side, but until the Coventry defeat we had secured good wins against Plymouth Albion and Rosslyn Park, so it shows the strength in depth of the squad.

“I want six wins from the last six games, but sometimes things go against you. So I know it’s a cliché but we will be focusing on taking each game as it comes. As is always the case, we are confident if we play well we will have a very good chance of winning every game.”

However, Howard is only too aware of the threat Ionians pose to OEs’ ambitions. They are currently one of the form sides in National One with three wins and a draw from their last five games which has seen them move out of the bottom three. When the two sides met for the first time at Brantingham Park at the end of November (pictured), Elthamians went down to a comprehensive 27-11 defeat.

“It was by far and away our worst performance of the year,” Howard admitted. “But that should take nothing away from Hull or their performance because they absolutely bullied us in all areas.

“As has been said many times already this year, any team on their day can beat any other in this division. Yes, Hull have everything to play for because they are battling to move away from the bottom three, but we want to win the last six games and are looking forward to playing at home again and hopefully putting right a few wrongs.”

Discipline and yellow cards were becoming a concern particularly after OEs had four men sent to the sin bin against Coventry. “From my point of view it’s been the biggest disappointment this season,” Howard admitted. “But we have talked about it this week and addressed it in training. Now we move on.

“If we win all six games remaining I think we could make the top five at least, but a top half finish would still be a great achievement in our first year in this league.”

Old Elthamians line-up
to face Hull Ionians

1 Lewis Brown
2 Nathan Morris
3 Alex Rogers
4 Adam Preocanin
5 Ben King
6 George Messum
7 Hamish Barton
8 Harry Ledger
9 Ollie Claxton
10 Joe Carlisle
11 Renford Bennett
12 Kieran Moffat
13 George Emmerson
14 Dom Lespierre
15 Chris Surman

Replacements
16 Stefan North
17 Jay Rudland-Thomas
18 Mike Denbee
19 Tom White
20 Tom Parker