amateur rl By Martin Morgan

Last updated 11:44, Friday, 07 November 2008

Glasson are targeting a home win over Hensingham tomorrow in a bid to advance their Cumberland League Division One top four claims.

Here I come: John Paul Brocklebank makes another break for Egremont against Crossfields last weekend

Hensingham traditionally stake a strong top four bid but have made an indifferent start to the campaign, taking only three points from their opening four matches.

And Glasson assistant coach Chris Fisher believes the Whitehaven outfit will miss former Great Britain amateur international centre Kyle Amor, who turned pro with Whitehaven after representing Cumbria on a summer tour to Australia.

“I toured with him, and Kyle Amor was probably our best player, with Eddie Robinson,” Fisher said. “Hensingham will probably miss him in a big way.

“We ran them close twice last year, and we are more-or-less evenly-matched. But they are still a strong team, fairly young, with the likes of Reece Fox, who’s a GB youth international.

“We are building a good squad with a couple of new players and have a chance of making the top four. We go in to this game with fairly high expectations.”

Glasson will be without skipper James Moore, who has suffered a suspected double hernia, and centre Matthew Johnson, who is in Australia for the RL World Cup.

They went down 19-12 to local rivals Maryport last week, when Fisher reckons they got caught up in the derby atmosphere.

“We got sucked in to that derby thing and didn’t play smart,” he said. “We tried too hard and it didn’t come off. We tried to score on every set of six and blow them out of the water. But their completion rate was 75% and ours was 40%.”

Glasson lie fourth on points difference but have played more matches than First Division rivals.

Pacesetters Kells travel to Distington, following last week’s 30-18 Amateur Cup win over Wath Brow, when without ex-pros Carl Sice, Steve Kirkbride and Stephen McGrady.

“We had five 17-year-olds in, and it’s a good competition to blood those lads,” coach Peter Smith said. “We still had the nucleus of our pack and did all right.

“We’ve won five from five in the league and just need to concentrate on our own game. Every team struggles with injuries and we are no different.”

Kells’ main title rivals Ellenborough host Wath Brow’s second-string, while Seaton, in third, will be keen to bounce back from last week’s heavy 44-0 Amateur Cup defeat at Broughton Red Rose.

Seaton travel to Cockermouth, who are searching for their first league win after five outings.

In the Conference, hosts Wath Brow should have little trouble in maintaining top spot in Division One at the expense of winless Normanton Knight, who have only one point from eight games.

John Smith’s Cumberland League Division One: Cockermouth v Seaton, Glasson v Hensingham, Distington v Kells, Ellenborough v Wath Brow, Broughton Red Rose v Maryport

Division Two: Great Clifton v Frizington, Egremont v Salterbeck A, Kells A v Maryport A, Lowca A v Lowca, Flimby v Seaton A

National Conference Division One: Wath Brow v Normanton Knights

Division Two: Milford Marlins v Egremont