It's fair to say that facing two games in three days over the Easter weekend will be a little bit of a challenge.

We were a bit depleted last weekend with 13 players out injured or otherwise not available and it's going to be a tough test for us this weekend.

We are going to Hunslet on Friday, who are rapidly improving, and then there is our first game against Swinton on Monday in the division two championship.

Most of the lads have been playing for a while and are used to cramming two games in over Easter. Work commitments do make it slightly harder though, especially for those with physical jobs like the bricklayers, builders and joiners.

It's very difficult for them to get the rest and recuperation they need.

For my first ten years as a player, I worked as a joiner all over the country and it is difficult to find time to manage your injuries. The lads can get a bit fatigued towards the back end of the week with work and training commitments but they are tough people and they just get on with it.

But this rush of games only happens once a year so it will be okay - although I was hoping to have a few more players to use.

If we had a fit squad of 24, we could have six or seven guys come in fresh for Monday but obviously that's not going to be, although we are hoping to have a few back.

Tom Buckenham, Craig Forsyth, Chris Levy, Dan Potter and maybe Chris Ross should all be available at some point this weekend.

Our Challenge Cup foes Oldham have got a few financial problems at the moment.

They are £180,000 in debt to the tax man and that could be affecting their preparations.

How much that will affect the players will depend on if they are getting paid or not. If they are not picking up their wage packets then that will have an impact because it is never nice if you don't know whether or not you are getting paid.

But sometimes you just can't tell how these things will have an effect. Sometimes adversity brings you together.

We had a real adverse week last week with injuries - we were even looking at the coaching staff to play at one point - but we got through it and they went out fully committed and did well.

So you can't always read between the lines and say for sure it's going to have an effect on the team. We certainly won't be making any assumptions in the build-up to our Challenge Cup preparations for April 3.

That's the second time a club has been in the news for financial reasons in the last few weeks, following on from the last-minute lifeline for London Skolars.

The York club is very well managed with directors who have got a budget and they stick to it. That is really important for clubs to try and adapt that so they stay in the black.

What happens with some teams is they want to win promotion so they think bringing in big players will achieve that and they will be able to pay for it when they go up with the bigger crowds and extra revenue they get.

But then if they don't get promotion, they have still got to pay the players without the money from the extra gates.

You need to recruit a team that can get you out of the division and stay healthy in monetary terms.

It can be difficult to get the right balance.

Updated: 11:05 Wednesday, March 23, 2005