He knows the potential for a giant banana skin if City beat Pontefract by a big margin and we lose at Hedley Lawson Park. That's why he is calling the forwards in half an hour early before the team sets off up the A1.

A relaxed Gateshead have already shown their ability to take a big scalp with victory at Driffield. They have steadily improved since we beat them with 14 men at Brinkburn at the end of November.In that game skipper Anth Carr was rightly sent off for a punch on Gateshead's David Glendining - who had been making his presence felt from the first whistle. He eventually got his marching orders as well and subsequently spent much of the season out of the first team.

But, with injuries to player coach Ally McConway and others, he'll be at No 8 against West.

But the West focus will be on producing another workmanlike performance. The attitude against City was spot on from the first whistle, with no sign of the early lethargy which cost us the games at Carlisle and Driffield.

Not surprisingly, the squad is unchanged form the one which should have won by a bigger margin at Hollow Drift. There are a few dead legs and knocks, causing one or two players to sit out a training session this week but, crucially, none of them are in the pack.

West: Painter, Thorn, Hodgson, Howe, A Cheslin, Moss, Tighe, Carr, A Dixon, Robinson , Davies, T Dixon, D Boatman, J Boatman, Rudd Reps ): Norris, Henderson, C Cheslin

Gateshead: Cloak, Finlay, Lindsay, Tate, Carr, Tilley, D Kell, McKeown, Douglas, Burns, Carr, Henry, Pluskall, Stevenson, Glendinning Reps: Thandi Huntley,Simpson