LONGTON will be without the entire back row that did duty against Kettering.

Skipper Joel Booth, Kieron Healey and Ben Grocott are all unavailable and Longton have a cluster of injuries.

But hooker George Glenn is back and Wheat said: "It could have been worse and we still have a decent team."

Notable absentee for Stafford is skipper Ben Ryder, who suffered ligament and cartilage damage in the semi-final against Burton last month and has not played since.

Macdonald said: "I have every sympathy for Ben. We have lost his leadership and lost our way in the league since he has been out of the team.

"He is a terrier and people follow him and I feel sorry he has to miss the final. He kept the ship together in all the bad times of two seasons ago when Stafford never won a game."

LONGTON from: Johnson, Glenn, Davies, Greatholder, Thompson, J Smith, Bebbington, Ainsworth, Askew, Brogan, Hallam, Rawlings, Pointon, A Green, Robson, Birse, Hammersley, McDonald, O Green, Hall, T Smith, T Wheat

STAFFORD from: Hodgkinson, Gurden, Watson-Jones, Smith, R Walklate, Mottershead, M Walklate, Hogan, Gildroy, Wilkinson, Purves, Walker, O'Connor, May, Anslow, Austen, Castrey, Leese, Davies, Duncan, Cooke.