I'd still start with Knight who is closer to match fit and Aydin on the bench. If Hardaker is fit, I'd have Litten on the bench with Balmforth and Ashworth. Moy and Eseh to miss out. We're a fit team and having a back on the bench instead of a third middle gives JC cover and options.

I think we may start with asiata at stand off and pryce on the bench for the first 20-25 minutes and aydin at 13

only what Peter Stirling once did by mind you .............

If I remember he got MOM to 

When I was stood at Wakefield, two weeks ago, my mind drifted back to that afternoon in late '83 (as it always does every time I visit Belle Vue). I was behind the posts in 1983, where the new stand now resides. 
Sterling making his debut for us, Lewis for Wakefield! Like Wilf says, the pair of them barely off the plane before running out. Don't think I have ever been at a game where two players were so dominant in the minds of every single person in the crowd that afternoon. 
For everyone now under the age of about 55, it's difficult to put across how incredible it was to see those two players run out in darkest West Yorkshire that afternoon. They could have flown in from Mars, so astonishing it was to witness.
Unquestionably two of the greatest players in RL history, they stand comparison with anyone you could care to mention.


Probably a touch unfair on Pryce to compare him to Sterlo, but if he has anything like the same impact then we're onto a winner here. One thing's for sure, he will enter Fc folklore if he pulls out something special on Saturday afternoon, so no pressure on the lad then!!!!

So, it begins!!! As we face the biggest cup game at home we have faced for decades. How’s everyone doing?? Some are confident many of us are apprehensive some are nervous already and me Mr glass half empty well…..
 
The players seem quietly confident, the coach seems a bit less cautious than normal and most of the fans I speak to think we might just do it. I wish I could somehow share their confidence. But as a hardened sceptic and blind follower of the FC, try as I may to be confident, I just can’t see it. I often approach big games like that because if your right you somehow feel better and if you win who cares anyway. 
 
This is going to be so tough and one thing’s for sure we need a solid start with no penalties given away, because if they get as far ahead as Wigan did then I know that lightning won’t be striking twice!!! 
 
I hate that lot with a passion, but they are a bloody good team this term probably as good as there is in the British game at present and they have gone off with a bullet whilst although we have still got off well for me at least we’re not really firing on all cylinders and as always injuries abound. But rather like the fans at times as a team we’re flying on the fumes of belief passion and a never say never attitude. Which we all know can get you a long way. However, for this fan, the greatest thing of all is that had this scenario unfolded last season we would simply have been watching through our fingers, head in hands or from behind the settee just praying we could at least keep the score down. 
 
When you step out of the cauldron that is this game you have to wonder just how amazed would we all have been back then last year if we knew that we would have possibly the richest owners in the game, who have bought into everything we have for so long believed in, a proactive and influential Football Manager/Chief Executive, a strong Aussie coach full of common sense and integrity and some of the best and most experienced hardened pro’s in the game AND be where we are after 6 league games. Having knocked Wigan out of the Cup at their ground!!!! When you list all that  and compare with last season its almost getting to miracle status !!!
 
 We have come so far and the fans god bless ‘em, (hardened by seasons of disappointment, false dawns, abject banality  and the guiness book of records turning up to assess our end of season losing  runs), are again turning up in great numbers away from home and packing the stadium for a Derby no one in the game outside the ranks of the FC pilgrims feels we have a hope in hell of winning!!! 
 
The faithful do it as we all do in hope, rather than expectation, but are starting to believe again. However as for Saturday I think it just might be a step too far too soon, but as long as we give it a go as we have every game this season, we have a chance and I’ll be happy.  I knows that it’s the hope that kills you well I never learn, because this season I have it all over again. So for me, a massive game but as far as the future is concerned this time I honestly believe it could be for real thing. So, strap yourselves in for Saturday but whatever happens I think there are certainly some better times ahead. COYH