THE tough fixtures keep on coming for Ed Brown’s Bradford & Bingley with Pudsey St Lawrence visiting in today’s affair.

It follows after a league and cup double-header against table toppers New Farnley last weekend.

Pudsey currently find themselves in third spot in the Bradford Premier League, whilst B&B remain in sixth and a victory for Brown’s side would certainly send a signal of intent to the rest of the league.

Looking ahead to the fixture, Brown said: “Coming off back-to-back fixtures against New Farnley you want a bit of an easier fixture, but we are facing another great side in Pudsey. They are quite similar to us in the fact that they have quite a few youngsters coming through and they are all settling in nicely, but I do think they are a couple of years ahead of us in that respect.

“To accompany a handful of youthful talent, they’ve got probably one of the best batters in league history in Mark Robertshaw, who consistently reels off high scores with the bat and unfortunately for us, he likes batting at Bingley. So, it’s going to be a very tough week, but as always we are pretty confident going into this one.”

Brown added: “We have got a very good bowling attack so we will have to make use of that this weekend, with their batting being such a strong point. The plan will be to attack early, get the wickets early and then hopefully that will disrupt their rhythm.

“If that doesn’t work out, we always have a plan B which will involve us restricting them as much as possible. But whatever way we look at it, it’s going to be a very tough fixture and we’ll need to bring our A-game.”

Bradford & Bingley do have a chance to close the gap between themselves and Pudsey with a victory this weekend and Brown admitted that achieving that would be the perfect push for a top four spot.

He said: “It’s a great opportunity this weekend to get back in the hunt at the top, there’s no denying that. Last weekend wasn’t ideal for us but before that we were beginning to go on a nice and steady run which did see us slowly inch up the table.

“We are only 22 points behind Pudsey and if we win we will close that gap massively and depending on other results, we could end up in the top four.

Brown added: “That’s where we aim to be; we aim to be as high as possible and right now, we are perhaps not where we want to be, but we can rectify that by beating the teams around us, starting this weekend.”

B&B were hit for 351 by the league leaders New Farnley last Saturday and Bradford & Bingley could only respond with 157 (all out).

Reflecting on the fixture, Brown said: “It was a very tough game for us. They’re very experienced, they’ve got great quality and I think their experience showed.

“We have got a very young squad, who are still learning, but as a team we learnt more from that defeat than we would have if we’d have beat them comfortably. These days do happen and they help to transform the making of a great side.

“I firmly believe we can get to that level in the future. I’m confident in it.”