Cinderford put on a fine display in October to beat Wharfedale by 19-17 at the Avenue in National League One, thanks mainly to an outstanding performance from fly-half Mark Woodrow.

Immediately after that match, Woodrow and South African back-rower Jake Boer departed the club and Cinderford lost their next seven matches, to fall to second bottom place.

Then, with the new year came a change in form: after losing at Macclesfield, they beat Coventry by a substantial 26-0, then last Saturday won at Blaydon by 20-17.

They have climbed two places to 13th, three places and nine points behind Wharfedale.

Despite Wharfedale’s rise in confidence following their own two wins, the visit to the Forest of Dean has therefore taken on a new dimension.

Wharfedale name the squad which would have appeared last Saturday against Sedgley Park.

Wharfedale (at Cinderford): A Whaites; J Druce, C Malherbe, A Hodgson, S Horsfall; T Barrett, P Woodhead; C Steel, S Graham, B Hooper, A Allen, T Vaioleti, D Hughes, R Baldwin, D Solomi. Replacements: A Mason, I Larkin, R Brown, R Rhodes, T Davidson.

Wharfedale’s season might not extend into May.

They suffered their fourth postponement of the season on Saturday when frost put paid to their hopes of hosting Sedgley Park.

With fixtures for both clubs already scheduled up to the end of April and with Park, who have had five matches called off, already having a re-arrnaged match for Saturday, May 7, the earliest weekend that Park could travel to The Avenue would be May 14.

However, in order to avoid playing what could be a meaningless league fixture four months down the line, the clubs are in discussions about rearranging the match for a midweek date in Grassington.

Wharfedale’s programme editor Gordon Brown said: “Our fixture secretary Michael Harrison has talked to Park and they haven’t dismissed it out of hand.

“We want to play the match and the danger of leaving it until May 14 is that it might have no bearing on promotion or relgation and the league might turn around and say you are not going to play the match, and there is a precedent for something like that.

“Another reason why we want to play the match is financial. We had a big sponsorship arranged for last Saturday from the Cavalry Club and, while we won’t lose that sponsorship on the rearranged date, we wouldn’t get much of a crowd if it was played at the end of the season either.

“If we played it in midweek under our floodlights, we would not only get all our regular supporters but I also think we would attract other fans from other clubs who fancy watching a game.”

Saturday’s match against Park was called off after a 10am inspection by Guiseley-based referee David Hudson.

Brown added: “We had had the frost covers on since the previous Thursday but they can only cope when temperatures are minus three or minus four but this time temperatures were minus seven or eight.

“The pitch was rutted and unplayable, and probably wouldn’t have been playable at 2.15pm, despite the thaw.

“Sedgley Park had convened in their clubhouse waiting for the phone call and discussed it among themselves before ringing back to say they didn’t want to come.

“But in general financial terms we are okay.

"We have introduced a season ticket scheme this season and we have sold 160 to 180, who turn up for each match.

“If you add to that our walk-up crowd and visitors, then we are averaging over 400 per home game.”