Barrow Raiders will look to end their poor run of results – without a win in four games – when they visit Batley Bulldogs on Sunday.
The South Cumbrians sit next to bottom of the Championship, two points behind the Bulldogs, yet a win for the Raiders would propel them towards the top six.
Apart from the seemingly doomed Dewsbury who are bottom there’s not a lot between seven clubs as it has become very congested from mid-table down – with three points between Doncaster who are seventh (13) and four clubs on 10 points – Swinton, Halifax, Whitehaven and Barrow.
To make even tighter York and Batley are both in the mix on 12 points, so much to play for in the closing two months of the season.
Paul Crarey’s men will be hoping to replicate their performance from the previous meeting when they picked up two points in a 24-14 victory at the Northern Competitions Stadium back in May.
Raiders head coach Crarey has named his 21-man squad to face the Bulldogs with Ryan Brown, Jacob Douglas, and Harvey Makin all absent on Sunday as they return to their parent club Wigan Warriors for the weekend. Delaine Gittens-Bedward, Blain Marwood and Ryan Shaw come back into the fold.
The Barrow squad is: Luke Broadbent, Andrew Bulman, Brett Carter, Max Clarke, Matt Costello, Luke Cresswell, Ellis Gillam, Delaine Gittens-Bedward, James Greenwood, Ryan Johnston, Blain Marwood, Finn McMillan, Kavan Rothwell, Ryan Shaw, Razor Silva, Aaron Smith, Jarrad Stack, Brad Walker, Tom Wilkinson, Josh Wood, Greg Worthington.
Batley will choose from: Robbie Butterworth, Elliot Kear, Josh Woods, Luke Hooley, Brandon Moore, Joe Burton, Lucas Walshaw, Jonny Mitisas, Kieran Buchanan, Ben White, Ben Kaye, Sammy Kibula, George Senior, Nyle Flynn, Joe Gibbons, David Gibbons, Adam Gledhill, Dale Morton, James Brown, Luke Cooper.
