Our recent record at this weekend's opponents Batley has not been the best, although on our last visit four years ago we came away with a draw which was an improvement!

During the months and months of no training, then pre-season training, an enforced two-week pause to that in January, and then returning to play matches behind closed doors we have been told, on countless occasions, by the Rugby Football League, that Covid will continue to have an effect throughout the 2021 season despite many people thinking we are over the worst of the pandemic.

As a club, we are responsible for the safety and wellbeing of all those involved in what is classed as our 'essential staff'.

That includes our support staff as well as the players and coaches.

Throughout all of this we have strived to do our best to make sure that everybody is in good health, both physically and mentally, both during the enforced period off last year and since we returned to a bio-secure training environment.

The governing body has continually stressed the need to maintain the current restrictions and protocols to make sure that we remain both vigilant and to make sure that as far as possible, everybody involved in putting games on at the moment is in the best position to do so.

Like other clubs we have had disruption to training because of coronavirus in various ways and this has been another thing to factor in as we were preparing for, and now play out, the current season.

There will no doubt be more disruption along the way – it is a sad fact of the current situation, but rugby league people are resilient, and this has again shone through at clubs across the country.

On a more positive note, I can confirm that next Tuesday we will be having a virtual meeting of clubs to discuss the return of spectators. How good does that sound?

Many things are still up in the air around stadium capacities and that will have a large bearing on what post-May 17 looks like for fans and clubs but fingers crossed we will have some positive outcomes to report next week.

Don't forget this Saturday's match is another early kick-off – 12.45pm – but is again available to watch via OuRLeague.

As I said, it will be a tough challenge but one we are looking forward to.

Fingers crossed!