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As ever Supersoccer have shown their hand first on a difficult week for the compilers. This is the round of the Challenge cup that sees the Super League teams entering the competition. The question now is how the Super League teams compare against their National League rivals. On the whole I feel that Supersoccer have under-rated the Super League teams. The gulf between the full time Super League players and part-timers from the National League is widening yearly as the speed and power of the top players seems to grow. Also the later start to the Challenge Cup in the last couple of seasons means that the SL teams are well in to their stride. It could be that teams give some of their walking wounded a break this week and I confess I have very little team news to hand but I still believe there are some decent wagers this weekend:

Leeds -40 v Celtic 2pts@1.91

Obviously Leeds are a class above Celtic who have their own franchise ambitions for next season. Leeds will be missing Ellis and Bailey from last week's team but coach McClennan has promised to field a strong line up. Celtic are a little bit up and down with fine wins against Halifax twice and then brought to earth with a thumping at Whitehaven. All this suggests to me is that they are a run of the mill National League One side. Run of the mill National League sides do not beat Leeds, they do not get close to Leeds and I expect a very comfortable night with the Leeds youngsters taking advantage of their superior pace. I had this one in the 48-50 range.

Catalan -26 v Featherstone 3pts@1.91

You are probably going to get a similar story in all my write ups this week. In this case Featherstone face a Catalan team sitting in third place in the SL and quality throughout their team. Its all about the superior power and pace and the French team have a very big pack that the part-timers won't be able to cope with. I had this one as Catalan by 38.

Huddersfield -16 v Halifax 4pts@1.91

A few weeks ago I might have envisaged a tussle in this one but Halifax have shown a very leaky defence since their fine performance against Melbourne. The Giants will take advantage of this and although they are only a workmanlike SL outfit they will have enough pace in the likes of Jensen, Whatuira and Elford to exploit. Coupled with a decent defence and a big set of forwards there can be only one outcome. I had this one as the Giants by 30.

Hull -34 v Rochdale 2pts@1.91

Rochdale are a National League two outfit so the gulf is even wider than the previous games mentioned. They aren't too bad an outfit at that level but this will be something else. Despite Hull 's injuries they still have plenty of class in the team and will have too much pace. The lower stake is cautionary due to the state of the Rochdale pitch that caused last week's fixture to be postponed due to waterlogging. The weather forecast isn't too clever but I still feel I wanted to include this one albeit at the lower stake. I had this one as Hull by 44.

Hull KR -32 v Workington 3pts@1.91

Workington are probably the worst team that I have opposed. They are a mid-poor ranking National League two team and won't be able to compete with their SL rivals. Pace and power seem to be a common theme with me this week but with the likes of Jake Webster, Paul Cooke, James Webster and Michael Vella in their ranks Rovers should over-run their opposition. I had this one as Rovers by 44.

the man