NOT all relegations have negative implications, and that's certainly the case for Bradford & Bingley.

The Bees now find themselves in Counties Two Yorkshire following back-to-back relegations, but after a difficult past couple of seasons the club appear to be on the up again.

They have nine points from their opening three league fixtures and currently sit in 6th place.

And although Ali Macdonald's side fell to their first defeat of the season at Ossett last weekend, the Bees remain one of the favourites for promotion.

Having often gone into many fixtures as underdogs last season, the roles are reversed this time around, and captain Luke Spauls admitted that he's enjoying the feeling of going into matches as 'favourites'.

Speaking to the T&A, he said: "We had a group meeting at the start of the season and we mentioned that, with Bradford & Bingley being such a big club in the past, we were expecting every team in Yorkshire Two to treat their game with us like a cup final.

" I quite like that feeling because I feel like it takes a bit of the pressure away from us.

"We know that any team we come up against this year will want to claim a scalp and take a feather out of us, so we just have to stick to our game and not get pulled into the emotions of the match.

"We expect Baildon to be well up for it this weekend and they'll want to take the bragging rights, but we are also determined to get one up on them on Saturday."

Spauls went on to praise head coach Macdonald, and confirmed that he's seen a great deal of progression within the group since his arrival at the club.

The Bees captain said: "Ali has been fantastic since he came into the club. He puts a lot of work in behind the scenes and it certainly doesn't go unnoticed with the players.

"He's great at the man management side of things, but he's also got us playing some good rugby and the progress is definitely there for people to see."

Looking ahead to the local derby at home to Baildon today, Spauls said: "It's always nice to lead the club out in a local derby because it's the type of game that gives you that added feeling as you want to beat a rival.

"Last year we had the games against Keighley and Bradford Salem which were both very fun to play in, and I'm sure Saturday against Baildon will be no different.

"For us, we want to rectify our mistakes from Ossett last weekend, so we need a reaction and a strong performance. Hopefully the result follows from there."