Jamie Doran was full of praise for Workington Town’s new crop of amateurs that made the big step up last weekend.

Town fielded eight trialists alongside several amateurs who signed for the club in the close season, when they welcomed Widnes U19s to Derwent Park.

And half-back/hooker Doran says the newcomers did not look out of place.

“A lot of people look in from the outside and say ‘oh young amateurs won’t do a job’ but we see them in training and they know what they are doing,” said Doran.

“I was really impressed with them, everyone had a good game and these lads stepped up and didn’t look out of place.”

Doran had special mention for former Seaton prop Tom Curwen, who signed for Workington back in October.

“Tom started at prop and when you do that you have to be up for it and he was,” said Doran.

“He carried the ball strongly, was tackling well and his fitness was there.

“He has come up from the Cumbria Men’s League and played a Super League Academy team who were fast and strong with some big lads in there.”

Doran also praised young Seaton amateur Billy Southward who took to the field for the first time on Saturday to create a piece of family history, following in the footsteps of his grandfather Ike.

“Billy had something big on his shoulders before the game with his grandfather having played for the club,” he added.

“But he held his own. He’s not the biggest lad but he did some tackling and he was hard to take down.”

He admitted that this weekend’s friendly at Huddersfield could be an eye opener for some players, if the Giants play any of their first team squad.

“It will be a great experience for some of these young lads if they are chosen,” he added. “To have the experience of playing people like Danny Brough, if he plays.

“It is always a dream to play against people with that kind of experience. These lads were playing for amateur clubs last season and now could be going up against Super League players.”

Doran is now classed as one of the more experienced players at Town, despite being just 22.

But he is keen to help the club rebuild for the future and thinks everyone is pulling in the right direction.

“I don’t mind helping these young lads that are coming through, we have all been there and we have to look to the future,” added Doran.

“We want to have a good season but after we went down we knew we had to rebuild and look towards the next two to three years.”