Whitehaven coach Jonty Gorley insists he wants his side to be competitive in every game this season.
The west Cumbrians narrowly avoided relegation to League One, pipping Keighley on points differential last year.
Ahead of the opening game at home to Swinton tomorrow Gorley said: “I don’t want to be involved in matches where we concede 40, 50 and even 70 points like we did last season.
“I want us to be competitive in every game as I don’t want to be in a battle down there in 12th, 13th or 14th to stay in the Championship.
“Pre-season has been hard, and the defeat to Workington in the Ike Southward was tough to take because we didn’t play well.
“But I would say we are a fit squad and that we can learn from the mistakes we made against Town.
“We had a good, opposed session against Egremont Rangers, 13 against 13 in mid-week and there were things that showed up there we can work on ahead of the Swinton game.
“We’ve had opposed sessions against Ellenborough and Egremont and that’s something I want to keep doing during the season because it is very useful.”
Whitehaven’s coach has a couple of injury concerns and won’t be making a final team decision until Sunday but has named a squad of 20.
“Swinton are a very competitive side who work really hard for each other throughout the 80 minutes and we will need to be on our game to get anything out of it,” said Gorley.
His squad is: Ross Ainley, Dion Aiye, Jake Carter, Lucas Castle, Rio Corkill, Dalton Desmond-Walker, Jamie Doran, Oscar Doran, Will Evans, Edene Gebbie, Guy Graham, Lachlan Hanneghan, Connor Holliday, Ryan King, Jake Maizen, Owen McCarron, James Newton, Joey Romeo, Perry Singleton, Curtis Teare.
There are some familiar names in the Swinton squad named for the game – including Dan Abram, Liam Cooper and Daniel Spencer-Tonks who have all played for the west Cumbrians.
The Lions squad is: Dan Abram, Matty Chrimes, Jake Spedding, Jayden Hatton, Rhys Williams, Dec Patton, Jordan Gibson, Liam Cooper, George Roby, Gavin Rodden, Mitch Cox, Mikey Wood, Josh Evans, Daniel Spencer-Tonks, Lewis Hall, Matty Fletcher, Jack Stevens, Andy Badrock, Joe Purcell, Noah Stephens, Jonny Vaughan.
