BIRKENHEAD PARK had a break from their North 1 league programme and return to action this Saturday away at Morley.

Park will be looking for a consistent performance after their Jeckyll and Hyde display against second-place Cleckheaton when a superb first half performance was followed by a dismal second half display.

There is no sign of Park's woeful injury situation improving with acting skipper Chris Planchant ruled out for six weeks with a broken hand. The impressive Planchant has been in top form in the Park back row and he will be sorely missed.

Meanwhile Park's West Indian winger Elwin Chase has suffered a further setback to his injured knee and he is yet to make an appearance this season.

Planchant and Chase are on a long list of absentees from the Park squad which includes skipper Phil Reynolds, Stephen Dodd and the promising Adam Oliver.

On the plus side another long term absentee, former skipper Duncan Meehan, has resumed playing after injury and he skippered the Park second XV to a 32-24 victory over Altrincham on Saturday. Committee member Peter Mylett scored two tries for the Park Wanderers in an entertaining game.

Park will have to find a new captain for this week's fixture at Morley who are above Park in the North 1 table.

Birkenhead still have a four-point cushion above the bottom three teams but they need to put together a good run of results to move out of the danger area.

Park spokesman Harvey Davenport said: "After three very successful seasons things are not going our way at present, but it is times like this that we need to knuckle down and work hard to improve. Team spirit and commit-ment can go a very long way to winning games."