Rugby: Longton hit by injury crisis

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.