WHARFEDALE'S stop-start season gets going again tomorrow with coach Peter Hartley urging his team to end any lingering anxieties about relegation.

Waterloo are the visitors to Threshfield, and Hartley wants to make absolutely sure of his place in National League Two before he looks ahead to next season.

"It's a long shot but it could happen, look at us a couple of years ago, so we need to nail those points and relax," said Hartley.

He admitted he was thinking ahead and was itching to blood some of the younger players who are knocking on the door of team selection. But with only trips to Doncaster and Newbury, almost certainly the promoted pair, and a home game against Bracknell, who are fighting for their lives, to follow, Hartley knows he cannot take anything for granted yet.

Waterloo are fourth and are still in with a shout of promotion, so there is little wonder that Hartley has a note of caution. And he knows that his team should have made themselves comfortable some time ago.

The stuttering end to the fixtures is no help and Hartley was bemused by the fact that for the second time teams are left without a fixture on a weekend when there are no internationals.

"Easter's a time for derbies and big crowds but there's been nothing, yet we play on big international weekends," he said.

"Mind you, on the other hand, I wouldn't have fancied battling through the traffic to Bracknell for Easter."

Waterloo crushed Wharfedale in the second match of the season but Hartley says that was not unexpected.

"We were coming off a battering by Doncaster and we were still in a state of shock. Everyone was looking at us and saying we were crap but we played the strongest teams in the league early on," he said. "But we found our feet and really if we had played 80 minutes in every game throughout the rest of the season we would have been threatening the top two.

"Instead we're looking the other way and wondering where's the next win's coming from."

So there's no chance yet for experiments, much as Wharfedale would like to test out a few of the younger players in the furnace of a proper league encounter.

The usual prop rotation apart, the only change from the team which drew at Manchester is Sam Cottrell coming in for Jonny Newton at scrum half - a move Hartley described as "purely horses for courses".

Ben Wade continues on the bench, although Hartley dropped a heavy hint that his extra beef may be back for the daunting visit to Doncaster next week.

Wharfedale: Davies, Horsfall, Baggett, Malherbe, A Lovatt, Meehan, Cottrell, Peel, Lawn, Dickenson, Lister, Capstick, A Allen, Baldwin, Verity. Replacements: Ingram, F Lovatt, Wade, Newton.

Mike Beech reaches a landmark for Skipton at home to Roundhegians tomorrow when he moves second in the overall list of league appearances for the club.

He will overtake Adam Winthrop and make his 155th league appearance, 15 behind Andy Philip. He made his debut back in the 96-97 season. During the intervening years he has the impressive strike rate of 48 tries.

Skipton, whose season of promise has fizzled out somewhat, bring in Matthew Cox with Paul Lacy dropping back to the bench while Nathan Tiffen starts at prop.

Skipton: Smithson, Cox, D Litt, G Litt, Marks; Naylor, Beech; Tiffen, Hindle, Fitzsimons, Newhouse, Wilshire, S Boatwright M Boatwright, Roberts. Replacements: Lacy, Davison, Watts