SEDGLEY Park have been hit by a double blow ahead of their biggest game of the season.

The Tigers welcome leaders Leeds Tykes to Park Lane on Saturday, but will have to take on the title favourites without key players Matt Riley and Martin Halsall.

The on-loan Sale Sharks' pair, who have been instrumental in Park's run of four wins in their last six games, have been recalled by the Guinness Premiership champions following an injury crisis at Edgeley Park.

Versatile full-back Riley, pictured, has impressed with his strong running and siege-gun kicking, while prop Halsall's scrummaging and work in the loose has helped Sedgley claw their way up National League One.

The duo's departure adds to Tigers' director of rugby Tim Fourie's problems, who is already without a handful of first-team regulars, ahead of the visit of the title favourites.

"Those two boys deserve to get recalled," said Fourie, who saw his side suffer an EDF Energy National Trophy exit at the hands of Nottingham last weekend.

"I just hope they are used, if not it will do Sale no good and hamper our chances of pulling off a shock win.

"It's made worse by the fact that another Sale player, Andy Vilk, who has done well for us every time he has played, is away again on England Sevens duty and our own Ledua Jope damaged his ribs playing for the Army.

"With Riley and Vilk out of the equation and the likes of Arno De Jager, Chris Wilkinson and Phil Largan still out injured, Jope, although really a back row forward, can and has played on the wing for us.

"So he will have to decide whether or not he can play with the pain, because the only treatment for bruised ribs is rest, but we are running out of options.

"As it stands we are looking at dropping wing Chris Hall back to full-back and playing Jope on one wing with Andy Craig on the other. If Jope is not fit, we may give a start to youngster Henry Monsell.

"We should have the normal centre pairing of Ian Voortman and Chris Briers in place with Phil Jones back at fly-half and either Jamie Albinson or Chris Leck starting at scrum-half.

"In the forwards Petrus Du Plessis will start in place of Halsall and it will be two from me, Ed Norris and Ben Lloyd in the second tow, with the usual back row of Adam Newton, Jimmy Ponton and Jon Skurr."

As for being knocked out of the cup, Fourie took more positives than negatives out of the game.

"The most important thing for us was the opportunity to rest nine first team players and we did not pick up any more serious knocks," he added.

"We frustrated Nottingham and were still in it at half-time even with a scratch team.

"We should have done more in the second half than we did, but we did not really have a kicking game as we had Jason Duffy at 10 for most of the game before he switched to 9 and his place was then taken by youngster Dom Kohler.

"Plus our defence, which we have been working hard on recently, was a big disappointment, so we have been concentrating again on that in training this week.

"For someone like Duffy this is a season of recovery from the broken leg and dislocated ankle he suffered last summer; it will take him the whole of this season just to get his full fitness and sharpness back.

"He's a good footballer with a good rugby brain but an injury like that takes a while to get over and he will get more benefit from playing a full 80 minutes in the second team than getting 10 minutes here and there in the firsts."

As for Leeds - the club Fourie left to join the Tigers - he said: "They are very sharp in attack and once they get behind you they get support in quick.

"To stop them doing that we have to be successful in our first-up tackling.

"We need to put them off their game and upset them, if we can do that they will spend more time arguing with us and hopefully each other which will frustrate them and force them into making errors.

"After two or three phases they will be expecting to run through us, so we have to stop them doing that.

"When it comes to comparing us to Leeds it's like putting a Fiat up against a Mercedes.

"We are not competing with Leeds to win the league, we are competing with Waterloo, Moseley, London Welsh, Otley and Newbury to avoid relegation.

"That's a fact. So against Leeds we have our work cut out and realistically we will be aiming to keep within seven points of them; if we can do that we can then go for four tries and try and surprise them.

"The only way we will achieve that is by being in their faces, being rough and tough in the contact areas, brassing them off, ensuring we make all our tackles and play in the right areas.

"We should have had a losing bonus point earlier in the season at their place and were only denied by a late interception try.

"However, they will have wised up by now and they will no doubt have done their homework on us and will be better prepared for us this time, but they will still think they should win this game comfortably.

"There are a lot of connections between the two clubs.

"I played for Leeds as did Chris Hall, Jimmy Ponton and Andy Craig, while they've got our former winger Richard Welding, so we want to do well against them."

Sedgley Park play Leeds Tykes at Park Lane on Saturday (kick-off 2.30pm).