Home advantage will put York Acorn six points closer to the biggest game in their history according to coach Alfie Hill.

The Thanet Road club host unbeaten Cumberland League leaders Seaton Rangers in round two of the Powergen Challenge Cup for a place in the draw alongside the big-gun professional national league sides.

Said Hill: "We've travelled up to Cumbria a few times this season and it's got to be worth six points being at home. It's a long travel - at least three and a half hours - and I've never taken a full team up there.

"We should be well-supported as well on Saturday. I think we've given good value for money recently and everyone who was at the Ince Rosebridge game seemed to enjoy it."

And with the stakes bumped up, the crowd will be too for the 1.30pm kick off.

"It would be a first for the Acorn to go through so it's an achievement for the lads and myself," added Hill. "It gets you a big turn-out."

One disadvantage though for the buoyant National Conference division one side is the loss of last week's man of the match Adam Endersby, who has a previous commitment.

Doubts are also hanging over Gareth Lloyd with an ankle problem adding to a long-standing groin strain, and Andy Lee a hamstring victim. But both may yet make it through if they pass stringent fitness tests.

Heworth will be wiping a long fixtures sleep from their eyes when they tackle Waterhead away in their first game for four weeks.

The positive side of the lay-off, caused by Challenge Cup fixtures and the withdrawal of teams, including Featherstone Lions from the league, is that several players nursing slight knocks have returned.

But it was not quite long enough for player/coach Chris Smith, who is still out with a hamstring tear.

Also not in the picture is former York City Knight Aaron Wood, who is having problems getting his work visa to return to the UK from Australia but hopes to be back before the end of the season.

Other than that, the squad is looking relatively healthy ahead of the trip to Waterhead, where Smith is looking to the experienced forwards to get the hard graft in.

He said: "We'll be looking for a lot of leadership from the more experienced players like Dan Briggs and Nicki Wilson - if he's back from work commitments.

"We're looking for the forwards to be a bit more dominant than they have been, because we'll need it.

"It's quite a big game for us because they're not that far away from us in the league.

"If we can catch them and get the points that'll put us in good stead because we've got Normanton next week and that's an even bigger game."

Updated: 09:07 Thursday, February 16, 2006