BLACKBURN Hawks have swooped to sign Solihull Barons defence man Declan MacNaughton and former player Ian Hough, just beating Wednesday's transfer deadline.

The pair go straight into Hawks squad for tonight's game away to bottom of the table Billingham Bombers.

Irish-born MacNaughton was brought up in Canada, but his dual citizenship means Hawks need not class him as an import.

"He is a quality signing and just the type of new face we have been looking for to give everyone a lift," said manager Mike Cockayne.

Forward Hough returns from Altrincham to bolster a squad that has been noticeably short of depth in numbers of late.

Tonight's game gives the local side an opportunity to complete what manager Cockayne - who ought to know as a qualified accountant - reckons is the mathematical formality of securing a certain play-off spot. I always reckon that five points from every four games - an average of a point and a quarter per game over the season - will get you there. And if we win tonight that gives us the 65 point target," calculated Cockayne. "Even I haven't worked out every possible permutation and combination, but our first goal for the season was to make the play-offs and it now looks certain we've done that.

"Having led the league for so long we wanted to win it too and although Manchester look favourites now, we intend to pursue them all the way.

"But people shouldn't be too disappointed that we're only second - how many people would have predicted that at the beginning of the season?" Hawks will again be without chickenpox victim Lee Cowmeadow, but the new arrivals will freshen up a squad that's been fully stretched by an almost unreasonably demanding January schedule.

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