If Tindall is fit then I can understand if he comes in to the squad, as good as Lewis Martin has been for us a rest certainly wouldn't be a bad thing for him. That said with Sutcliffe back in and based on form I'd actually keep McIntosh in the centre and drop Carlos and have Tindall & Martin on the wing. Guess a lot depends also on the fitness of Scott too.

What does concern me, is that even with Houghton coming off with tightness in his hamstring Smith still doesn't seem to want to include Balmforth again even in a 21 man squad. I can only think as he played reserves last week that he doesn't have any future at the club under Smith which is a shame as he's certainly seems a decent player and offers us something we haven't got at 9 and just not seemingly been given an opportunity as we still obsess in flogging Houghton for 80mins, even though after about 60mins he's just no longer effective.

Yes we do have 3 hookers but as Dave points out two of them are playing in the halves.

So unless Charles is going to be on the bench and get more time than just a cameo appearance I fail to see any reason not to include Balmforth if there is no fitness/injury concerns. If he is fit to play and just not getting selected at this current time I doubt he will at any point moving forward unless we lose Houghton for a period of time.

Smith should have let Houghton retire last season , His wage could have been used to strengthen other areas we are struggling in now .

Start of a big 2-3 weeks for us.

If we could win the next three games (and I know that is a tall order given our current circumstances) then everyone is going to feel a good deal more buoyant about the months ahead on the back of a cup quarter-final to come and a derby win.

On the other hand, lose all three and the season will effectively be over before April fools day (fairly apt, some might say!!) with the only realistic goals of finishing above Cas and London to look forward to, while wistfully hoping for better news regarding 2025.

We really could do with a win (and a decent performance to go with it) on Saturday to put some hope/energy into the fanbase. Hoping some of these rumoured player returns are true and we can at least have something starting to resemble a first-choice line-up to judge.

The issue is, with the lack of quality domestically who could we have realistically signed to strengthen our squad. If he was a quota player, then yes definitely, I still like Houghton, but he shouldn't be playing 80 minutes.

I'd definitely be more confident if Houghton, Pele and Scott are in the 17.

Could do with Lam and Amone missing out.

Powell would've been a better option

Short term maybe, I don't rate him that highly particularly in attack, I'd like a more dynamic hooker.

Ackers would've been perfect but obviously we couldn't match Leeds offer for him

Not realistic, would never choose us over Leeds and as you say we wouldn't pay a fee.

He should be realistic though, this is how far we have fallen Adam and Clarky want us to believe these sort of signings are out of our reach and we should be happy where we are. Not that long ago we attracted Ellis when every other club wanted him.

Didn’t Leeds stump up £250,000 for Ackers and Brodie Croft? Didn’t see other clubs offering that sort of money. Ellis didn’t require transfer money, his other option was Leeds and it was quite a coup to sign him.

It was rumoured that every club had made Ellis an offer, but we must have delivered a good contract and also at the time we had a new owner investing big in the squad so it felt like a good project for him. How times change.

If we were prepared to make Clifford a marquee player, and we're linked with Blore, surely there was money there that we could have used to pay for a transfer fee for Ackers? I imagine Brown and Okunbor are on far less than Blore and Clifford would've been on

This is why im intrigued at the amount of the covid loan. Youd like to think whatever amount it is that weve paid off will go towards next seasons squad build.

Rumours of 500k. Well if Croft and Ackers cost 250k , i know its not always that straight forward, but surely we invest big next season with no loan to pay, a more favourable tenancy agreement agreed, and the continued backing of fans with season pass sales, corperate sales and sponser deals.