HEWORTH ARLFC boss Scott Rhodes believes his ever-improving side should have enough in their locker to beat Keighley Albion on Saturday.

The Villagers lost their first game in four league fixtures last weekend, going down 34-24 at Yorkshire Men’s League division one table-toppers Queensbury.

But, with Heworth having made a strong start to the campaign, Rhodes is not taking the defeat too hard and insists the main objective for his promising young side is that they continue to make progress with their game.

Heworth have already met their weekend opponents Keighley this year in a Forty-20 Cup fixture that ended in 14-6 victory to the Black and Whites.

Keighley’s league season has not yet gotten off the ground, having lost all three of their opening fixtures. They were beaten 32-16 a fortnight ago at home to Queensbury but did not have a game last week.

Rhodes said: “We went to a good unbeaten Queensbury team and suffered our first defeat. It was disappointing but there were some good performances, we just didn’t take our chances.

“It was a story of two halves. We won the second half and played some good stuff but overall it was defensive errors on the edges that cost us.

“We were 24-8 down at half-time and we just couldn’t claw that back.

“The pitch was like a cow field and the ref wasn’t great – poor excuses, but they make a difference away from home.

“We’ve just got to go again at Keighley.

“We played them at the start of the season and beat them comfortably in the end, so they’ll know what the challenge is.

“But I’m pretty confident that if we can play to our potential, we shouldn’t have any problems there.

“We’ve won three out of four (league games so far). We’re just looking to improve as a team and a club.

“The important thing is that we keep seeing improvement, which we should because everybody’s training and working hard.

“We’re scoring a lot of points, so there’s no problem with our attack. Defensively we’ve been okay.”

Adam Dent will retain his place in the centres at the weekend while Josh Poulter will come back in as a number nine. Lewis Worthington is absent with a wrist injury.

The Villagers are still waiting on news from dual-reg players Ben Dent and Liam Jackson.

Although Rhodes admits it makes game preparation harder to not have them available for Thursday training, in-keeping with his philosophy of development, he is happy to bear that burden.

He said: “It’s not ideal for us, but I want the professional players to play as many pro games as they can.

“However, if they don’t play, it helps us a lot because they’re quality players and would get into any side.”

York Acorn ‘A’ remain at the foot of division one without a point to their name after three consecutive defeats, most recently being put to the sword in a 52-12 loss at Hull Wyke.

Tomorrow, Acorn host Cutsyke Raiders who have won one and lost one of their two games so far and last turned out in a 22-20 home defeat to Heworth in mid-April.