MORLEY, back at the top of National Three North, face a big task in their bid to stay there with the trip to Birkenhead Park on Saturday (3pm).

The Park have an impressive home record, having won seven out of seven, and this promises to be another big test for the Maroons.

The club have suffered a setback with the decision of back row man Steve Hewetson to leave and join Harrogate.

Like all the players at Scatcherd Lane, he is not under contract, and the Claro Road club have been trying to persuade him to join them for some weeks. Apparently their offer involves a job and the overall package is too good for the player to turn down.

Morley coach Peter Seabourne said: “I am not happy at the way things have been done but our players are not on contract and can be approached. Harrogate have offered a job and security, we couldn’t match that and you can’t blame anyone for moving in those circumstances.

“Steve has been a good servant at Morley for more than five years. His loyalty and commitment to the club have been outstanding and I have never had cause to question his effort. I can only wish him well in his future career.”

Seabourne pointed out that Hewetson’s departure at least gives chance to other players in the squad.

Will Smyth played as a substitute last Saturday and Will Nutbean is fit, although it was decided that last weekend was a week too early for him to return and he will be in the reckoning on Saturday.

Joe Battye, who has not played for a couple of weeks because of exams, is also available, while Sean Burke started in the second row in the outstanding win over Beverley, when the Maroons bounced back from the defeat at Penrith in some style, with a handsome win, and a bonus point from six well-taken tries against a team who did not play all that badly.

Seabourne remarked: “We played really well. We didn’t talk much during the week about what happened at Penrith, but put it down as one of those days. We scored almost straight from the kick-off last Saturday and that set the tone and we gained the bonus point.

“Towards the end we were able to shuffle the team around a bit and give some other lads a run out but the whole performance was very satisfying.”

Winger Chris Morgan went off after taking knees in his back in a ruck. He has had back problems before and went into muscle spasm but soon recovered and is expected to be available this weekend. His injury gave Bradley Marshall another senior chance as he played for 35 minutes and spent part of them in his favoured position of centre after switching with Liam Frost.

The 41 points piled up against Beverley helped increase the points difference advantage over Stockport, who struggled to win 10-0 at lowly Rochdale.

On last Saturday’s form Morley are a very dangerous side.