Barrow’s head coach Paul Crarey has made two changes to his 21-man squad ahead of Sunday’s game at Whitehaven.
Roly Seward and Connor Terrill are both included for the first time this season as Tom Walker and Shane Toal drop out.
Barrow opened their account in the 1895 Cup with a 30-8 win at Workington Town, and expect a tough encounter at their fellow Championship rivals.
Crarey said: “I think so far in the pre-season friendlies and the Cup match last week we have seen improvement from game to game and that’s what we want to see before the Championship season starts.
“It’s going to be interesting against Whitehaven because they’ve brought in a few players untried in our conditions and we don’t know anything about them.
“We did look at the video of when they played Widnes and there were one or two things there that we picked up on which we think might be weaknesses and we can get at them.
“They have a good player come in from Papua New Guinea whose coming back after a bad injury and although he’s gonna be playing against us, believe it or not I’m looking forward to seeing him play.”
Barrow’s squad is: Luke Broadbent, Greg Burke, Max Clarke, Matt Costello, Luke Cresswell, Charlie Emslie, James Greenwood, Adam Jackson, Ryan Johnston, Harvey Makin, Finn McMillan, Mike Ogunwole, Roly Seward, Ryan Shaw, Razor Silva, Aaron Smith, Jarrad Stack, Connor Terrill, Brad Walker, Tom Wilkinson, Josh Wood.
Whitehaven looks forward to meeting Barrow
Meanwhile, Whitehaven coach Jonty Gorley is happy with his squad ahead of Sunday’s opening 1895 Cup game at home to Barrow.
“Obviously we’ve only had the one game, and Barrow have had a few, but I was happy with how we went at Widnes.
“The lads have trained well since then and their latest set of numbers on fitness levels were good.
“I know it’s going to be tough, as Barrow were in the Championship last season. I watched them at Workington last week and they have a big, mobile pack who played big minutes.
“But we are all looking forward to it and hope there’s a good crowd in for what will be a hard Cumbrian derby.”
Gorley has named a squad of 20 for the game which includes eight newcomers to the club.
Papua New Guinea star Edene Gebbie heads those and even Barrow coach Paul Crarey is looking forward to seeing him in action.
Gorley will choose from: Ross Ainley, Dion Aiye, Jaske Carter, Lucas Castle, Rio Corkill, Jamie Doran, Oscar Doran, Will Evans, Edene Gebbie, Guy Graham, Lachlan Hanneghan, Connor Holliday, Ryan King, Evan Lawther, Jake Maizen, Owen McCarron, James Newton, Callum Phillips, Joey Romeo, Curtis Teare.
