MALTON & Norton RUFC are virtually nailed on for the play-off place in Yorkshire One - but they haven’t given up hope of nicking the automatic promotion spot from Doncaster Phoenix.

Malton, relegated from North One East last year but looking to bounce straight back up, are 23 points clear in second place, scintillating form having brought 13 straight wins.

They remain eight points behind Phoenix, though, with nine games to go, and they need the South Yorkshire side - who have a 100 per cent record - to slip up at least once before the two front-runners meet on what could yet be a winner-takes-all final day of the season.

Malt host lowly Old Brodleians at The Gannock tomorrow confident of making it nine wins from nine at home, while Doncaster host sixth-placed Scarborough.

Malt club spokesman Bill Laidler did not hold out much hope of Boro doing them a favour but was not giving up on the title.

“It will be difficult for Scarborough - Doncaster’s ground is a bit of a fortress,” he said. “Not many people will come away from there with anything.

“But you never know. We’re relying on Doncaster losing twice and we have to win all of ours, but if they lose once it could boil down to the last game.”

The league winners go straight up to North One East while the runners-up meet their counterparts in Northumberland & Durham One for another promotion place.

Malt, along with most of the league, had a weekend off last week, and Laidler did not think it would interrupt his side’s form.

“It came as a bit of a help really,” he said. “There were one or two players carrying niggling injuries so it’s given them a chance to get over them.”

He was not taking victory as a given, though. “On paper maybe it should be,” he said. “But they ran us close at their place and it needed a last-minute try from Sizwe Zondo to beat them. That was early in the season, though, before we got things together properly. We have to fancy our chances now.”

York head coach Sean Bass admitted to “mixed feelings” about the rest week as his side prepare to get back into action against Wath-on-Dearne in Yorkshire One.

The Clifton Parkers moved into joint-third in the table after impressive victories over Scarborough and Selby, and Bass was revelling in the momentum discovered by his side.

“In some ways it was nice to have a break, to have a little rest and have a bit of a breather,” he said.

“But we won against Scarborough and got a fantastic win at Selby - which was very much what we needed - so it would have been good to have had a game last week.

“We have got to beat Wath at the end of the day. They beat us at their place early on, which we weren’t happy about, so we owe them one.”

Bass says his team continue to take it one game at a time but a third place finish, behind Doncaster Phoenix and Malton, is on the cards for his men if they can continue to pick up victories.

“It would be a good finish, given the ups and downs we have had and the fact we have not performed on the road as we know we can,”

he added. “We won’t make a big song and dance about it. We play each game, each week and we hope results go our way. Then it is in our own hands. It is up to us then.”

Chris Fox, nicknamed “captain Courageous” by Bass after his exploits against Selby, continues to head up the York pack with Will Norris coming back in to firm up the scrum after injury.

Pocklington entertain Dinnington, who are two places above them in the North One East table.

When the teams met at Dinnington in October, the home side edged it 13-6 in a game that turned when the scrums went uncontested just as Pock had gained ascendancy up front.

Pock name a 20-man squad, including returning three-quarter Pete Massie.

Elsewhere, Selby have a mid-table Yorkshire One battle at Bridlington while York RI, sixth in Yorkshire Four but with a game in hand on several rivals, host Knaresborough