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Peter Clegg

Otley return to National League 2 action on Saturday with a challenging game at second placed Stourbridge.

Although head coach Peter Clegg said his side are approaching it as just another fixture, he admitted: "It is an important match that will go an awful long way to deciding who is champion of the division or who gets promoted."

Manchester took advantage of a blank league Saturday to play one of their two outstanding games, picking up five points against Blaydon to keep up the pressure on leaders Otley and Stourbridge.

But they still lag behind having lost five games so far, one more than the Midlanders, although both teams have beaten Otley.

These are the only two Otley defeats have suffered and a revenge victory on Saturday would certainly steady Otley's nerves for the final four games of the season.

Although only winning by a single point at Cross Green Stourbridge will be desperate to grab the double for they have to go to Manchester on April 29 which could well sort out which two of the three gain promotion.

Clegg said Otley's loss to Stourbridge earlier in the season might mean that the "omens are not good" going into the game, but he and his team remain confident of getting a positive result.

He said: "If we perform, we should win. The players have been performing well, training well and working extremely hard for each other."

Clegg said Otley's 21-20 loss to Stourbridge earlier in a season was a game where his side had an off day and didn't take their opportunities.

"We didn't perform as well as we should have done and didn't execute our game plan as we could have done."

He said that although Stourbridge are a side with a good back row, a good goal kicker and are capable of scoring a lot of tries from the back, he said his team should have the answers to these threats.

"It's a case of them worrying about what we will do.

"They can play rugby but in the league we've scored the most points, conceded the least points and had the most wins. The game is in our hands."

The game at Stourton Park kicks off at 3pm.

An Otley club representative said there will be good support for the Cross Green lads as already one bus has been filled and many more spectators will be travelling by car for what could be a championship decider.

2:02pm Thursday 13th March 2008

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