WITH Ilkley seven places and ten points better off than Bradford & Bingley, there seems little doubt that the Dalesmen are favourites for Saturday's much-anticipated SSE North One East derby at Stacks Field (2.15pm).

Yet being expected to win is not a tag that sits entirely comfortably with Ilkley coach Rhys Morgan, despite the Bees having failed to win any of their four away matches this season.

Morgan said: "Games in this division are even and that is how I have looked at our matches against Dinnington and Pocklington, while Rochdale have started winning games, and we only just lost at Wheatley Hills last weekend."

Interestingly, Morgan does not even see the Wagon Laners as their chief derby rivals.

He explained: "I know there is a link in terms of players between the two clubs. But I have been here four years and I think of Keighley as our main derby rivals."

Ilkley's coach was disappointed with their 37-32 defeat at Wheatley Hills, despite conceding that the visitors had 22 players unavailable.

"Late changes didn't help us and, as so often happens with away matches after a coach trip, we got off to a slow start and we were playing against the wind and the slope in the first half," said Morgan.

"We were under the cosh for the opening 20 minutes and didn't tackle and by the time we got our heads around it, we had leaked a couple of tries.

"We got back into the game when they got two yellow cards but failing to make three tackles in important positions cost us the game, so my overall feeling at the end was disappointment."

Morgan added: "We had to play Stevie Graham out of position at No 8 but that didn't hinder us as he had a cracking game there and gave us some go-forward from picking up at the base of the scrum.

"We were just a bit lethargic and lacked a bit of desire, so I had no complaints about the result.

"We should have won at Sheffield and Pocklington, and we could have won on Saturday – but if we had we would have nicked it, although we got two points out of it."

Ilkley will be without two former Bees this weekend – lock Steve Burns, after two small operations (he should be back in December), and flanker or No 8 Stewart Brewer, who is out for the season, also after knee trouble.

Centre James Crossley, front-rower John Cooksey and flanker or No 8 Rupert Garland are expected to feature for the hosts, while former Ilkley scrum half Kirk Arundale is expected to be in the visitors' squad.