GATESHEAD Thunder have paid York Acorn ARLC a huge compliment by stressing they are picking a side on merit alone and are treating tomorrow’s tie “the same as they would if they were playing Wigan”.

Acorn go to Tyneside tomorrow (3pm) for a Carnegie Challenge Cup third round match looking to cause one of those increasingly rare shocks whereby a community club knocks out professional opposition.

Gateshead have gone 27 games without a win and, while new boss Kevin Neighbour is still confident his side will have too much for the Thanet Road amateurs, especially given their improved form in defeat this year, he remains wary of being on the wrong end of an upset and says there will be no let-up in their preparation.

“We’ve prepared exactly the same as we did for Whitehaven, for South Wales, for York City Knights,” he said, referring to his side’s Northern Rail Cup or Championship One matches.

“We could be playing Wigan or Canberra – will do the same for York Acorn and there will be no let-up.”

He added: “It (a shock) is always at the back of your mind and you don’t want to be part of that. We will respect them.

“They’re there on merit. They’ve beaten people in every other round and deserve to be there like everybody else.”

Neighbour, who played against Acorn as a junior for Newcastle Eagles “stacks of times”, said there will be changes to his side that lost in the league to Oldham last week, but stated: “It’s not a case of resting players – the changes are because some players haven’t played well and other lads deserve to be in the team.”

He was leaving it late to confirm his line-up but The Press understands former New Earswick ARLC hooker Tom Hodgson and fellow former Knights players Paul Stamp, Brett Waller, Mike Mitchell and Matt Barron are likely to be involved.

As for that losing run, including a 26-22 Northern Rail Cup defeat away to the Knights last month, Neighbour added: “It should have ended a few weeks ago at York. We also had an opportunity at South Wales Scorpions and didn’t close it out. If you take 23 minutes out of the last three or four games we would’ve won two. If we don’t make those one or two errors, wins will come into view.

“We need to make sure we do everything right and I’m confident if we do that we will come up with a victory.”