Blackburn Hawks play their final fixture of the year at home to Trafford Metros tomorrow (face-off 5.45pm) and they’ve got a couple of scores to settle.

Hawks lost their first meeting of the season against their local rivals 5-0 in October and suffered another disappointing defeat when the Metros visited the Blackburn Arena earlier this month.

But after a confidence-boosting 8-0 win at home to Telford Titans last weekend, Hawks are hoping to head into the Christmas break on a high.

Their task has been made harder however after receiving a couple of blows on the injury front.

Team manager Graham Lomax said: “We will be without Rick Hughes for about a month, as he has damaged his knee ligaments, but with the rest over Christmas he may be back soon.

“Sadly we will be without Matt Viney for the rest of the season from the end of January, as he will be having exactly the same operation as Ollie Lomax had on his shoulder.

“We have known for some time about this, but he was awaiting a confirmation date from the specialist, which he now has. Having seen first hand how the operation is done I can sympathise with Matt, but he has all summer to heal and hopefully he will be good to go for next season.

“I’m sure everyone will agree with me and acknowledge that he will be a big loss to the team and we wish him a speedy recovery.

“With regards to Ollie, he is now more or less up to speed with the rest of the guys and his rehab has gone as well as can be expected. He has an appointment in February with his consultant and hopefully she will clear him to play.

“Lance Derbyshire is now fit again, so he will add a bit more weight to the defensive line-up on Sunday.

“We are still looking at possible additions to the team before the deadline and we have had players to look at over the last few weeks and we will be making decisions on these guys very soon.”