The festive fortnight appears to have had the desired effect on the Blackburn Hawks, who look set to have a full compliment of players for this weekend's eagerly-anticipated encounter with Flintshire Freeze.

The Hawks, who returned to training on Thursday following a two-week Christmas break, will be looking to go into the New Year on a positive note and Sunday's English Cup tie against their arch rivals would appear to present the perfect opportunity.

A thrilling and somewhat controversial 6-6 draw was the result when the two sides last met in the league in December, but general manager Graham Lomax is confident home advantage will help his team get 2007 off to a winning start.

"We couldn't have asked for a better game to kick off the New Year," he said. "This fixture usually attracts big crowds, a great atmosphere and once again we expect it to be edge-of-your-seat stuff!

"Craig Rogers, who has been out for five to six weeks with a broken thumb, trained with the under-19s on Wednesday and looked okay, so we're glad to have him back.

"Lance Derbyshire was out for three weeks over Christmas with sickness, but we expect him to be okay.

"Everyone else is fully fit and raring to go, so it looks like we'll have a full strength squad at our disposal.

"We're hoping to do well in this competition and we've put a lot of priority on the English Cup this season, so we'll certainly be taking the game very seriously.

"It's always nice to start things off at home and I think the fans are hungry to come back and watch, especially as we ended 2006 with a number of away fixtures.

"Flintshire have three lads that used to play for us, so there's always added importance when the two sides meet, but we fully expect all bragging rights to remain in Blackburn."

Doors at the Arena open from 5.15pm, with face-off set for 6pm.