YORK Acorn ARLC's promotion credentials will come under scrutiny on Saturday as they entertain fellow high-fliers Eastmoor Dragons (ko 2pm) in a game of ever-increasing importance to the Blue and Golds.

Acorn's wonderful start to their first season in National Conference division one has been hit by a quadruple whammy, with Eric Fitzsimon's controversial departure as coach being sandwiched by two consecutive abandonments - disciplinary hearings for which are still to be set - all followed by defeat last week at Askam.

That 22-18 loss dropped the York side to fifth, one behind Eastmoor, but they will move back up to joint-second should they be given the points from the abandoned game against Hunslet Warriors. And joint-coach Paul Lumby said there were positives to come from last week.

"We were disappointed but we had a team with eight changes and still came close," he said. "We inadvertently contributed to two of their tries with a one-on-one steal and an interception try, and we had a try ruled out, but we did reasonably well and it has all added to competition for places."

Key players back in contention include props Mick Hagan and BARLA U23 star Adam Endersby, free-scoring BARLA U23 winger Johnny Waldron, centre Gareth Lloyd, player-coach Darren Callaghan and full-back Andy Henson.

Eastmoor, though, whose player-coach is ex-Dewsbury Rams boss Andy Fisher, are currently boosted by a few semi-professional players such as Doncaster winger Wayne Green, ex-Dragon Craig Miles and Darren Robinson, a former team-mate of Callaghan at York City Knights. BARLA Great Britain scrum-half Kevin Brown and full-back Matt Rogers are other dangermen.

Lumby added: "They're a strong side at present but we need to pick up points in our home games. This is a tough division but I'm sure we will do a good job."

Heworth will be eager to build on last week's excellent win over Ovenden when they visit Normanton in a crucial four-pointer at the bottom of NCL division two (2.30pm).

The Villagers put daylight between themselves and the re-election zone by seeing off promotion-chasing Ovenden and will be confident of climbing further away from the bottom with victory at Normanton, who have only a point to their name so far.

Updated: 11:54 Thursday, November 03, 2005