ALTHOUGH their defence stood up manfully in their 26-5 home defeat to Hull Ionians last Saturday, Wharfedale will be hoping that their handling skills improve before they take on Preston Grasshoppers at The Avenue in their National League Two North opener on Saturday, September 3.

The Greens certainly blew some opportunities to add to their only try from Will Davidson in their final pre-season game.

Learning a fast-paced, skill-based handling game is not going to be cracked overnight, but the Dalesmen’s chairman of selectors Michael Harrison said: “Considering that we have been working on it in training – pre-season has been more ball-skill based under (coach) James Doherty – and that it was a dry day, it was disappointing the amount of errors that we made but we were missing Scott Jordan and Tom Barrett, plus most of the Davidsons, who were cricketing.”

Harrison was full of praise for the Greens defence, however.

He said: “The most pleasing thing was our defence, bearing in mind that we didn’t have the ball for long periods.

“We defended very well, and the whole idea of playing against two tier-three (National League One) sides in our pre-season games (they had already won 34-24 at Blaydon) was that we would be tested, and that was certainly the case.”

Although the Greens were already missing Joe Altham with a knee injury, he has ironically been joined on the sidelines by his brother George, who has suffered an identical anterior cruciate knee ligament injury.

But there is a possibility that forward Emils Blandonis will be joining. Harrison said: “He has gone home to Latvia to think about our offer but we are optimistic that he will say yes.”

The kick-off for Wharfedale’s eagerly-awaited second league match of the season at Otley on Saturday, September 10 has been brought forward an hour to 2pm due to a clubhouse booking.