Workington Town and Doncaster are both in a similar siuation - pushing for a play-off place and producing inconsistent performances on the field

They go head to head for the first time this season at Workington's Derwent Park on Sunday (3pm).

Tough, experienced forward Stewart Rhodes remains “a week or two” away from contention, according to Town coach Gary Charlton, as he recovers from an Achilles injury picked-up in the opening Northern Rail; Trophy game of the season.

But Darren Holt could be included in Workington’s line up to face Doncaster. “He’s come on leaps and bounds in training over the last couple of weeks,” said Charlton.

The vastly experienced Holt is seen as a major signing by Town with his know-how and leadership qualities expected to play a big part in an end-of-season surge.

The Town coach added: “We all know that we can score tries – it’s defending that’s been our problem, especially in the first 10 minutes.

“We played some good rugby against London last week and we played some dumb rugby. Our main goal is to get it up to an acceptable level for a full 80 minutes.”

Charlton continued: “Doncaster are probably in the same boat as us. Once everybody hits their straps then I think we’ll start to see some of the teams at the bottom of the division getting some points.”

Both Charlton nd hi coaching partner Martin Oglanby will be interested in the fact that Doncaster's last four Co-operative Championship One outings have seen the opposition pile on the points in the second period.

Tony Miller's men held on for wins against London Skolars and Gateshead Thunder despite running out of steam.

But a similar scoring pattern also led to defeats at Blackpool and against Oldham at the Keepmoat Stadium almost a fortnight ago - when the visitors ran in five tries in a crazy 18 minutes second half spell.

Miller (pictured) this week admitted that the pattern was a cause for concern - and he's hoping his side hold up better at at Derwent Park this weekend.

"I've been scratching my head about it to be honest," he said.

"It's not like the players haven't been told at half time. We're all very aware of it but that's just the way it's going at the moment.

"We need to put a stop to it and play for the full 80 minutes this week."

Miller, who this week hopes to add Normanton full back Mike Butterfield to his squad, insists he is satisfied with the fitness of his players.

He said: "We've done quite a bit of fitness work and the lads are in good shape. They've all got individual weight programmes and I trust them to keep on top of things during the week.

"They know they've got to be physically strong to compete at this level. I think it's more of a mental thing to be honest," he added.

"We've done a bit of defensive work this week and we need to make sure we're able to keep our shape and perform when we're fatigued."

Shaun Leaf is in contention to return after a spell on the sidelines with a twisted knee.

Injured trio Scott Johnson, Liam Brown and Aaron Henry, however, all miss out. 

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