Doncaster forced to do battle without Cooke

James Gordon

Featherstone Rovers-bound Tom Hodson could come back into Tony Miller’s reckoning as Doncaster try to cope without Paul Cooke.

Cooke, a nominee for the Co-operative Championship One Player of the Year award, has been ruled out of Sunday’s match with a knee problem.

Dan Rooney and Graeme Mattinson remain sidelined for Workington Town, who must also cope without Andrew Morris for the rest of the season after he was given a two-match suspension for a dangerous throw against Whitehaven.

Town coach Gary Charlton said: “The players want to do it for themselves, and a there’s a bit of wanting to do it for Andy too. We’ll bundle it all up and that it into Sunday’s game.

“It’s going to be tough and hard, but if we defend like we did against Whitehaven there’s no reason we can’t win.

“The intensity in our defence was excellent. We were winning the collisions and driving them back, and it was the best we’ve been this year.

“We know we can score tries. If we can get our defence right then we’re in with a real shout.”