With less than a month to go to the start of the Betfred Championship season, Whitehaven’s head coach Jonty Gorley has announced his squad numbers.
But Haven will be in action before then as on Sunday, January 16 they will take-on local rivals Workington Town at Derwent Park in the annual Ike Southward Memorial Trophy game (kick-off 2pm).
It will have added significance this year as the game did not take place last season because of COVID-19 and it is always a competitive pipe-opener for both teams.
As for the squad numbers there have been a number of changes for the 2022 campaign following several new faces joining the club and some prominent figures departing.
New signing Liam McAvoy, a former Workington and Newcastle player, replaces retired club captain Marc Shackley in the number 8 shirt following the ex-skipper’s decision to retire on medical grounds at the end of 2021.
Tom Walker takes the number 10 shirt following Kris Coward’s retirement and new signing from Australia Will Evans takes the number 4 shirt previously held by Jesse Joe Parker, who is now the club with National Conference League club Hensingham.
There’s eight new faces in the 2022 squad of 24 which still leaves a good core of players who made the play-offs last season following a remarkable run of form at the end of the League campaign.
2022 squad numbers
1 Geronimo Doyle
2 Dave Eccleston
3 Chris Taylor
4 Will Evans
5 Andrew Bulman
6 Karl Dixon
7 Nikau Williams
8 Liam McAvoy
9 Callum Phillips
10 Tom Walker
11 Ryan King
12 Liam Cooper
13 Dion Aiye
14 James Newton
15 Connor Holliday
16 Tom Wilkinson
17 Andrew Dawson
18 Guy Graham
19 Jake Moore
20 Jake Bradley
21 Kieran Hudson
22 Josh Martin
23 Alex Bishop
30 Glenn Riley
The club will make an announcement later this week regarding the club captain for the upcoming campaign.
