Whitehaven's annual pre-season clash with Workington Town for the Ike Southward Memorial Trophy will be their final warm-up game.

Next year’s confrontation will be at Derwent Park on February 5, a fortnight before the first potential competitive game in the IPRO League Cup.

Before Haven get to grips with Town, they will have played on the previous three weekends as coach Carl Forster has managed to set-up the four pre-season games he was looking for.

Whitehaven will play all four games away from home against Keighley (Jan 15), Barrow (Jan 22), Newcastle Thunder (Saturday, Jan 28) and then Workington (Feb 5).

Forster said: “It’s taken a bit of sorting but we’ve got there now and I’m delighted that we have been able to get the four games I was looking for.

“It probably isn’t perfect that all the games are away, as I’m sure our supporters would have liked at least one home game but that’s the way it has worked out. There were reasons why we had to play them all away.

“In Workington’s case, it was their turn to stage the Ike Southward Memorial game, but in some ways, it’s good that we are testing ourselves on the road.

“We will be able to get in nearly two months of good training before the first blow-out at Keighley and we are also playing four teams who are also in League One.

"It should give us some indication of the relative strengths of the teams.”

Whitehaven have also confirmed for the longer trips away from home in League One – the likes of London Skolars, Gloucestershire, Hemel Stags and Oxford – they will be travelling down the day before and staying overnight.

Unless they are involved in the first round of the League Cup on February 19 (which still has to be drawn) Whitehaven’s first home game, and second League encounter of the campaign, will be on March 12 against likely title favourites Toronto Wolfpack.

Whitehaven’s League One campaign opens at South Wales Ironmen on Sunday, March 5.