JAMES PENMAN is expected to recover from an ankle injury in time to face Wharfedale at Brickfields on Saturday.

And he says all the players want to show the supporters how much their care about the club after a turbulent couple of weeks which included a shock 52-13 defeat at Ampthill last Saturday.

“The injury is not as serious as I thought,” said Penman. “It was pretty painful when I did it, but ankles are one of those things that you can recover from quite quickly. If I strap it up I should be able to go.

“When you get to this stage of the season you always have several niggles that you just have to get on with.

“But it was worrying as I’ve had a few issues with that leg with the calf and hamstring and I was not really sure what my fate was. But I managed to walk around on it Monday, which was good.”

Penman’s recovery is timely with Rupert Freestone on international duty in Ireland and Dean Brooker away in New Zealand.

The Kiwi admitted last week’s loss at Ampthill was tough to take after Albion’s good run that had seen them go unbeaten for three months.

Albion were not helped by arriving late for the game and picking up injuries during the match.

“It is always hard when your preparation is upset a bit,” said Penman. “You try as hard as a group to adapt, but you can’t be on (form) every single week of your life.

“It was really, really disappointing and the boys took it really hard.

“But the beauty about rugby is that there is another weekend and we can come back.

“This week we’ve got a home game and we want to show everyone how much we care about the club.”

But Penman knows Albion will face a tough test against a Wharfedale side who need to win to keep alive their hopes of staying in the division.

“They (Wharfedale) only lost by one point to Richmond last week and when we played them up there they were really tough costumers,” he said. “They are not going to back down that’s for sure.

“What I have learned from being over here in the UK is that northerners are special people and they fight right to the end. We definitely have a big test on our hands.

“But we’ve had great support every week at each end of the country and it is part of our duty to repay the loyal supporters.”