YORK Acorn ARLC are seeking more venom in the pack to help the side hit back from a rare defeat.

The Blue and Golds, second in National Conference League division one, lost ground on leaders Bradford Dudley Hill when pipped 14-10 at third-placed Milford last week.

They host lowly Castleford Panthers tomorrow night (7.30pm) seeking a rapid return to winning ways, aided by forward thinking.

Assistant-coach Lea Tichener said: “We can improve on last week. We know where we went wrong. We’re used to getting good starts but we left it a bit late. They matched us in the forwards last week but, if we could have put up more of a fight like we did in the last 25 minutes, we could have turned them over.

“The forwards need a bit more venom. They’ve gone off the boil a bit and we need to lift them up a bit and look at more tactical play with them.”

Acorn’s pack was not helped last week by injury to Nic Caldwell, even though he later returned to the fray. This week, Mike Embleton will be back to add more steel while Tom Hill could return to loose-forward after a stint at centre. Wide-man Jonny Waldron, though, is a big doubt with his ongoing injury troubles.

Kick off at Thanet Road clashes with England’s game against Sweden in football’s Euro 2012 – something which has been queried from both within and without Acorn’s camp. However, Cas Panthers try to play all home and away games on Friday nights and this date was agreed at the start of term.

Meanwhile, Heworth are still struggling to get a settled side and spokesman Ken Sykes reckons changing this could be key to improving results.

Encouraging signs a few weeks ago seem to have died down again after two heavy losses, leaving the Villagers still bottom of National Conference division two with 11 straight defeats. They host mid-table Featherstone Lions on Saturday (2.30pm).

Said Sykes: “We’ve used 40 players in the first ten games, which doesn’t help. Until we get a settled side we’re going to continue to struggle. We’ve got a couple of home games coming up, though, and on paper they’re not the hardest, so maybe we can do better and eke out that first win. It’s not likely on previous results but all we can do is keep trying our best.”

Sykes will fly to the south of France next Wednesday as manager of the National Conference Eagles representative side.

The team, made up of players from divisions one and two of the National Conference League, includes Acorn pair Matthew Woods and Anthony Chilton. The coach is former York Wasps and Scotland full-back Jamie Benn, of Castleford Panthers.

The Eagles play two games in three days against representative sides from France before returning on the Sunday.