Bradford & Bingley’s players have set their own target to escape the drop from National League Two North.

The Bees’ player-coach Stuart Dixon said: “We were going to have a complete week off last week with us having no game.

“But the players wanted to train last Thursday and they said at a meeting that we need 50 points.

“That means we need 22 points from our last seven matches – I don’t care whether that is four wins with bonus points or five wins without bonus points.”

That might sound a very tough ask considering that Bradford & Bingley have only gained 28 from their first 23 games but Dixon explained: “Five of our remaining games are at home, and we need to make that count.”

First up for the Bees on Saturday are leaders Loughborough Students, who have won 20 of their 23 matches.

Dixon said: “It’s a bit like when we played Macclesfield. We don’t want to set ourselves goals within the match. We just want to go out there and play rugby and see where it takes us.”

Mark Gemmill starts at scrum half for Bradford & Bingley, allowing Ben Greaves to go to full back, while Tom Gough returns to the bench having tested his ankle in second-team matches.

Bradford & Bingley (home to Loughborough Students): B Greaves; T Mafi, T Davidson, J McBirnie, R Almond; T Jerecevich, M Gemmell; R Raper, J Graham, R Wederall, M Bairstow, B Mitchell, G Ford, T Ball, T Cokell. Replacements: T Gough, S Dixon, J Whitfield, J Fawcett.