HEAD coach Scott Rhodes insists York Acorn ARLC will not throw the towel in as they battle against relegation – but he says going down would not be the end of the world.

Rhodes has cited a lack of numbers due to injury or unavailability as a big reason the Blue and Golds have struggled in the National Conference League premier division following promotion.

He has been forced to field youngsters aplenty – pointing out that five 17-year-olds were in the party that lost at Siddal last week – and, while he says that bodes well for the future, it has not helped the here and now.

“It’s looking difficult for us at the minute,” said Rhodes, whose side are two points adrift of safety having played more games than the three teams above them, and have six games left to claw back that gap, starting at Leigh Miners Rangers this Saturday.

“We’re really counting the cost of players being unavailable or injured. We’ve struggled with it.

“But we got to Siddal last week and scored 22 points – not many teams will do that this year – so we’re still in games.

“We’ve talked about games being there to be won, but we’ve just not won them. But we had five 17-year-olds last week, for example. We’ve had to deal with it.

“When you go to teams like Siddal, Wath Brow, Hull Dockers – they’re difficult places to go to, especially for kids. They’re very physical teams. It’s teaching the lads lessons, and they’re only going to get better for it, but that’s what we’ve been left with.

“Never throw the towel in, though. Games are still there to be won. It’ll be difficult to stay up and it won’t be the end of the world or Acorn’s world if we go down. But we just want to win games.”

Player problems continue this Saturday, with Ash Robson likely to join the lengthy list on the sidelines after suffering a rib injury last week.

In better news, forward Davey Burns could be back but Acorn will have to wait on Ryan Gallacher as he plays for York City Knights’ under-20s at Oldham tomorrow night.

Acorn ‘A’, meanwhile, go to Oulton ‘A’ in the Forty-20 Yorkshire Men’s League premier division tomorrow (7pm).