NEW Earswick All Blacks ARLC might have lost their top-of-the-table humdinger at Doncaster Toll Bar but player-boss Jack Stearman believes if they take that form into the rest of the season then runners- up spot is theirs for the taking.

All Blacks lost 39-28 to a side sweeping all before them in Pennine League championship one this season but they remain second in the table.

They could lose that place to the three teams immediately below them, who all have games in hand, but Stearman reckons his side, unbeaten at home but with a shaky away record, should take great heart from their recent efforts on the road, which continue at Allerton Bywater this Saturday (2.30pm).

“We agreed that was our best away performance in a long, long time - certainly our best in the two years since I took over,” he said.

“Toll Bar have been hammering everyone at home and we had a cracking game against them. There were 11 points in it at the end but the fact they took a drop goal with ten minutes left to inch two scores ahead says quite a lot.

“They sealed it with a late try but that was a very lucky score - impossible to defend - after a crazy bounce of the ball took our full-back out of the game.”

Defeat came at an additional cost as Jack Sinclair suffered a broken jaw and broken eye socket after a nasty altercation and will be out for six weeks.

Stearman described that clash as a “rugby incident” and instead wanted to focus on his team’s form.

“We played the second half with only 13 fit players due to injury, including two 17-year-olds, and to go there, run them close and play like we did was pretty exceptional.

“We’re looking to build on that and gain the rewards we deserve.”

Those teenagers, full-back Charlie Hill and second-row Ben Pulleyn, who had also turned out in a Yorkshire Colleges trial on the morning of the match, could well keep their shirts this weekend.

Adam Kirby, Luke Morton and Jack Hodgson could all be available again to bolster the ranks Hosts Allerton were hammered 72-10 at Bentley Good Companions last time out and, while Stearman expected anything but an easy run this weekend, he said: “We’re hoping to come away with a victory and we’ll have a very good chance if we play like we did against Toll Bar.”

Selby Warriors, 58-34 winners over Worth Village in a Supplementary Cup try-fest, return to league action with a division four clash at home to lowly West Bowling ‘A’.

Sherburn Bears, who suffered a shock Castleford & Featherstone ARL David Poulter Open Cup defeat at Cutsyke Raiders, go to Farnley Falcons in the same division looking to bounce back and bolster their promotion challenge.