LONDON BRONCOS coach Mike Eccles says coping with a few injuries is nothing compared to the club’s struggle to make the starting line for this season after the withdrawal of backer David Hughes.

The capital side, now under the control of Gary Hetherington and eyeing a return to Super League, were without influential backs Luke Polselli, Liam Tindall and Alex Walker and forward Lewis Bienek as they slumped 42-16 at York, a second defeat running, fourth in six outings and 14th in 20 league games this year ahead of the home meeting with Oldham.

Eccles handed a debut to Kobe Rugless, the versatile Australian signed from Hunslet, and a second outing to former Coventry rugby union winger Charlie Robson, while borrowing Leeds backs Jack Smith and Marcus Qareqare and again playing on-loan Warrington forward Dan Okoro.

And despite the scoreline, he saw plenty to encourage him, explaining: “Some of the boys who have stepped in were outstanding, and while we will be getting bodies back, they have put themselves in the frame.

“York are clearly a very strong team, they completed at a high level on a hot day, and while we wanted to pull off an upset, it wasn’t to be, with the game  playing out probably as people anticipated.

“We have some players out injured, and we’ve been a bit battered, bruised and beaten up, but you crack on, and a truly tough situation is trying to put a squad together in November, and scraping around to put a team out in February and March.

“We will keep doing what we are doing, get a few blokes back and get better.” 

Popular forward Sadiq Adebiyi reached 150 career appearances, 89 of them in his two spells with the Broncos, against York.

The 28-year-old has also had spells at Wakefield (three games) and Keighley (25) while also playing on loan and dual-registration for a variety of teams and twice for Nigeria, his country of birth.

The Broncos visit Batley on Saturday.