Whitehaven have issued their shirt numbers for the 2017 season with 26 players allocated tops for the League One campaign.

But player coach Carl Forster, who will wear number 10, insists that the starting berths have to be earned and that one to 13, in particular, will be competitively contested.

“I want competition for places and I think that’s what we have at the club this coming season.

“The shirt numbers have been given out but the starting positions have to be earned,” says Forster.

‘Earn the shirt’ was the Forster mantra when he talked about the design for the 2017 season and that has been included in the design.

Elliot Miller, one of the players who will be keenest to get started in 2017 after his injury nightmare debut season at the Recreation Ground, has been given the number one shirt.

That could be an indication that he is going to be used at full-back, a position he wanted to play at previous club Workington Town, although he scored the vast majority of his tries from the wing.

Two former Workington Town team-mates, Marc Shackley and Karl Olstrum, have been handed respective shirt numbers of eight and 13 while ex-Rochdale half-backs Steve Roper and Paul Crook will wear six and seven.

All 26 players will feature in the four pre-season friendlies when Forster is keen to give them, particularly the newcomers, plenty of game time in which to press their starting claims for the first competitive game.

Whitehaven squad numbers:

Elliot Miller 1; Craig Calvert 2; Chris Taylor 3; Jesse Joe Parker 4; Jordan Burns 5; Steve Roper 6; Paul Crook 7; Marc Shackley 8; James Newton 9; Carl Forster 10; Dave Allen 11; Scott McAvoy 12; Karl Olstrom 13; James Tilley 14; Dion Aiye 15; Connor Holliday 16; Tommy Holland 17; Tyrone Dalton 18; Glenn Riley 19; Troy Armstrong 20; Jake Moore 21; Kurt Maudling 22; Johnny Scott 23; Aiden Worthington 25; Shane Pattinson 26.