THE BARLA Lancashire Cup Final will be staged at Knowsley Road on Wednesday, January 10 and for the second year running it will be an all-St Helens affair with last season's runners-up, Haydock facing Portico Panthers.

The two sides are also rivals in the North West Counties Premier Division, with Portico currently lying in fourth place, having won five of their seven games to date, and Haydock in seventh with three wins from five.

After going down 30-10 to Thatto Heath in last season's final, Haydock will be looking to go one better this time around and coach, Kevin Thompson is quietly optimistic his side can produce a match-winning performance despite ring rustiness having had so many recent fixtures cancelled due to the weather.

He said: "We are a good, mobile, quick, 80-minute side, with good big match experience, although we don't have any ex-professionals in our squad, just good out-and-out amateurs from league, union and student RL."

Kevin, who has been in charge at Haydock for the last nine seasons, will be looking to club and Lancashire County captain, Wayne Bloor, to be "outstanding as always" in the final.

And he added: "We realise that Portico have a powerful pack of forwards who are big and experienced, but we will be looking to contain this through solid defence to allow our strong back-line to do the running."

Portico coach is Salford and former Saints player Mark Lee who joined the club four years ago to help brother Dave who was then player/coach and is still an integral member of the Panthers' line-up.

Since then, Portico have risen through the ranks of the North West Counties League, winning the championships of Divisions Three, Two and One and taking the St Helens Cup along the way.

Said Mark: "We realise that Haydock have a good pedigree, having reached the final last year, but the lads are really buzzing and 'up' for the match. Everyone has worked extremely hard and the nucleus of the side is made up of the lads who have played over the last four years."

Mark is hoping that his experienced campaigners can help steady the side and will be looking to former Saints and Salford pack ace, Paul Forber and evergreen club skipper Dave Ward to take the lead. Panthers also have bags of top-class amateur experience in the likes of brothers, Chris and Paul Ashurst and wily half-back Dave Lee, complemented by exciting youngsters such as full-back, Mark Rigby who has already caught the attention of a number of professional clubs.

And Mark also paid tribute to the 'back room' team at Portico, responsible for junior development and attracting sponsorship, particularly, secretary, Maureen Greenough for her tireless efforts for the club.

The game kicks off at 7.30pm and admission is £3 for adults, £1 concessions.