Whitehaven face a tough test to make-up for Sunday’s opening 42-0 disaster at Keighley in their second pre-season game this weekend.

The west Cumbrians travel down the coast to take on Barrow, who opened their programme with an honourable 22-22 home draw with Championship side Oldham.

Whitehaven coach Carl Forster said it had been a shocker, watching from the sidelines as Keighley scored eight tries without conceding.

Forster had always intended to watch from the sidelines, even though he would not have been fit enough to play in the end because of a virus.

It was horror viewing and the coach will almost certainly be out in the middle at Craven Park on Sunday.

“I felt a bit apologetic to the fans who had travelled down because I could count on the fingers of one hand any good players we had out there," he said.

"That simply wasn’t anywhere near good enough."

Meanwhile, Barrow coach Paul Crarey is waiting to find out how long Karl Ashall will be out for after the hooker suffered a suspected fractured wrist on Sunday.

Ashall, who quickly became an important part of the Raiders side after joining from North Wales Crusaders last year, was forced off after just six minutes against the Kingstone Press Championship side.

Crarey, who also had former Workington Town prop Tom Walker come off with a hamstring strain, said: “We've got Nathaniel Mossop coming back for the Whitehaven game, and we’ve got two good lads in Brad Marwood and Danny Abram who were electric around the rucks and gave good service as well.

“We lost Mossy for a large part of last year, we might have to do without Ashy for this, but fingers crossed.

"It’s the first friendly, we’ve lost two players, but that’s why you need a healthy squad and we’ve got a healthy squad for this year.”

Winger Shane Toal was the hero for Barrow as he ran in four tries which were almost enough to win the game but Oldham scored a converted try 30 seconds from the end to draw the game.

Whitehaven have all four pre-season games away from home – following-up Barrow with a trip to Newcastle Thunder on January 28 before visiting Workington on February 5 for the annual Ike Southward Memorial game.