NORTH Ribblesdale have a tough set of fixtures coming up between now and the Christmas break – but head coach and No 8 Matt Speres isn’t daunted.

Over the next six weeks, Ribb face sides who are currently in the top five in Yorkshire Division One, including meeting the top three away.

They host Old Brodleians (fourth) on Saturday and Beverley (fifth) on December 2, and visit Heath (second) on November 25, Scarborough (third) on December 9 and current leaders York on December 16.

But having beaten Selby, who have since climbed above Ribb on points difference, and only lost 33-29 at Bradford Salem over the past two weekends, Speres said: “If we can take the confidence from those two matches, I am sure that we can pull ourselves away from the bottom.”

He added: “We didn’t tackle for the first 20-25 minutes at Salem, indeed the first half in general (they trailed 28-0 after half an hour), and that is something that we have been working on in training this week.

“But we clawed our way back in the second half and finished strongly, as we had against Selby the previous week. We could have won had we had a bit longer at Salem.”

Ribb will field much the same team at Old Brods, although two of the starting XV are unavailable.

Speres said: “We will probably bring in Omari Kaup-Samuels in the backs and John Marshall in the forwards.”