Wearside League: Darlington RA and Ferryhill Athletic will make another attempt to settle their Wearside League Cup quarter-final at Brinkburn Road this afternoon.

RA manager David Woodcock reports that Steve Johnson has recovered from an injury he picked up last December and with Mark Radmore and Philip Sweet also available, he has a full-strength squad to choose from.

Ferryhill boss Alan Robson is still injured and is without Chris Mulkerin, so juniors John Makepeace and Kevin Hodgson are expected to play.

The semi-final of the Monkwearmouth Charity Cup has been switched to the Birtley Town ground after three abortive attempts to play it at Harton and Westoe.

Birtley, 3-0 winners at Ryhope CW in midweek, await news on the fitness of the experienced Trevor Hawthorne and add Paul Wilson and Roland Lee to the squad.

The visitors' manager David Jones is without his son, Jason, Wayne Goodwin and Keith McRitchie.

In the league, North Shields have the opportunity to extend their lead over New Marske, who are without a fixture.

The Robins will have winger Neil Hartley making a comeback at Boldon CA, who are likely to be minus David Wright, but Andrew Whalley and John Murray come into the plans of manager Norman Hunter.

Wolviston and Jarrow meet in a dress rehearsal of their Sunderland Shipowners' Cup semi-final but the outcome is unlikely to give a pointer to the result of their next meeting since the Tynesiders will be fielding a severely weakened line-up.

Scott Mason, Mark Diamond, Michael Bean, David Kilford and Graeme Abbot are all ruled out, which could mean manager Paul Thu and his assistant Dave Bell having to play.

Wolviston welcome the return of midfielder Paul Roberts. Striker Andrew List, though, is still suspended.

Annfield Plain, who went more than six months without a win, will be out to record their fourth victory in five outings when they host Windscale.

Cleadon SC secretary Doug Keys reckons his team gave their best performance of the campaign last week and championship challengers Redcar Town could face a difficult task at Jack Clark Park. The Seasiders' miss Brian Crawley and Paul Dodkins but Steve Gent is named.

Stanley United anticipate that Dwayne Hinds, Greg Chapman and Ivan Moxon will line-up in the home game with Ryhope CW, who will definitely be without Phil Thompson.

Late fitness tests will be carried out on Michael Burlinson, Liam Routledge and Kevin Bennison.