Vagabonds head to second-placed New Brighton on Saturday in Counties Three ADM Lancs/Cheshire and know the size of the job ahead of them.

They lie bottom of the standings and are eight points adrift of their nearest rivals Port Sunlight. Coupled with that, they lost their home tie against New Brighton 64-7 back in October.

Vagas don’t have the worst defence in the division - that honour is currently with Port Sunlight - but they’ve only managed 66 points in nine games at the other end and that lack of penetration is something which will be of concern to the management.

The squad is a fair mix of youth and experience and if they can weather the storm of this season they may develop naturally.

Youngsters like Will Taylor and Cole Donnelly playing alongside the much more experienced Matt Rockwell, Paul Howard and Ross Pulman will eventually lead to improvement - it just takes time.

Expect a New Brighton win here.

Intra-club day in

Manx Shield

Ramsey’s Reds and Blues and Nomads’ Whites and Greens face off against each other this week in the Manx Shield, with the third game on the card a meeting between Castletown and Western Vikings.

The Castletown v Vikings game is probably the most intriguing on the fixture list. Vikings put in a great shift against Nomads last week and, but for some disciplinary issues, would have ran them really close.

The big boys up front put in a big shift as usual with Messrs Hockney, Creasey and Goodwin all carrying well in open play and, with Ciaran Stephens sniping from half back, they were in the game for 70 out of 80 minutes.

This kind of form will cause Town all sorts of problems and I suspect we’ll see a Vikings win here.

At Ballakilley, Nomads versus Nomads is always a tasty affair while at Ramsey the earlier Reds v Blues clash was as compelling as it was attritional.

We may not see 15-a-side at these matches given the stage of the season we’re at, but you will find passion and commitment at unexpected levels.

Fixtures

Saturday, December 3:

Regional Two North West

Glossop v Douglas

@ Glossop

ko 2.15pm

Counties Three ADM Lancs/Cheshire

New Brighton v Vagabonds

@ New Brighton

ko tbc

Ravenscroft Manx Shield

all ko @ 2.15pm

Castletown v Western Vikings

Emerging Nomads

v Southern Nomads

Ramsey v Ramsey B