WHARFEDALE close their National Division Two programme at Plymouth Albion tomorrow knowing that unless they improve dramatically on recent displays, they could easily be on the wrong end of a good hiding.

League leaders Plymouth have Orrell determined to wrest the title from them at the death and with an extra game to play over the West Country side, have the capacity to snatch the prize with a couple of decent wins.

Plymouth have a 30-point scoring advantage going into their last game, but only by beating Wharfedale handsomely can they make themselves impervious to a prolific double by the Lancastrians.

Add the bitter taste of their first league defeat at The Avenue in December, when a run of 41 consecutive games without a reverse finally came to an end, and Albion should be fully revved up for the visit of the Dalesmen.

The Greens, in contrast, are coming off the back of a 33-3 home defeat at the hands of Sedgley Park and another home loss against a Fylde side that was at one stage reduced to only 12 men, hardly the kind of situation to inspire confidence of another form upset.

"I could not fault the team for effort in either of our last two games, but this was another game when we did not get close to our best form." says coach Peter Hartley.

"That has been our biggest problem this season. The margin between our best and our worst is far too great. If we are to make an impact on this division, we must play at the top end of our capabilities much more often.

"On the credit side, we produced our best display of the season against Plymouth. We have dragged out crucial wins from other matches which have been more important, but against Plymouth we really proved what we can do at our best. We made few mistakes, either forced or unforced, and made all the right decisions.

"If the size of the challenge is the incentive we need to reach our best, then tomorrow should bring a good display.

"I suppose in some ways we may be asking too much given the limited platform we have to work with in terms of the time and resources our players have to prepare, but if we are to challenge for promotion, we must play to a higher level more often.

"Against Sedgley Park we came across a team with all the qualities we least like to compete against. They had a strong back row and a good fly-half in Colin Stephens and though we hung on well for a while, they eventually got the scores their dominance deserved and we could have no complaints."

The Dalesmen travel to Taunton today for an overnight stay with a handful of changes to last week's line-up. Prop Neil Dickinson is on farming duties and No 8 Russ Buckroyd is still needed by his employers. Wingman George Smithson is out with hamstring trouble and Carl Burnett is unavailable because of work.

Craig Eccleston takes Smithson's place on the flank, while Simon Slater makes his season debut for the first team at fly-half, with Andy Baggett partnering Andy Hodgson in the centre.

The selectors delay naming their scrum-half - Dan Harrison and Graham Smith are bracketed for the job - until they know the composition of the back-row. Simon Hargreaves and Hedley Verity both have bumps and bruises to check on before a decision on who will start is made. Paul Evans and Phil Hargreaves complete the quartet which is expected to travel.

Wharfedale: from - J Davies; C Eccleston, A Hodgson, A Baggett, G Johston; S Slater, D Harrison/G Smith; P Peel, J Lawn, C Ingram, D Lister, A Capstick, P Evans, P Hargreaves, S Hargreaves, H Verity, G Hindle, C Greenwood.