New arrival Ryan Wilson is set to go straight into Workington Town's 21-man squad for their League 1 opener against Keighley tomorrow (3pm kick-off).

Town will entertain the Cougars at Derwent Park for their first league fixture of 2020, with the former Ellenborough Rangers amateur named in the initial squad after his signing was announced yesterday.

And while Wilson may take time to learn the ropes of professional rugby, he can look to the example of another amateur-turned-pro in Adam Ramsden after the ex-Wath Brow back-rower made his debut in the Challenge Cup win against Doncaster last Sunday.

Head coach Chris Thorman said: "I wasn't sure whether to throw Adam in or not but I felt we had an opportunity to do that.

"The plan was for him not to play big minutes but with the knock to Caine Barnes I put my faith in him.

"Apart from a couple of loose carries and a few little errors he was pretty good and he's only going to get better.

"It will take time, picking up things like video analysis and learning from other players in their position, but they've both done well and are both in the 21-man squad."

Thorman is taking a measured approach to his team's league campaign and said he was just looking for further improvement – particularly in possession – on their accomplished display to eliminate the Dons.

"I thought we were very good defensively against Doncaster but we missed a lot of opportunities on the ball," he said.

"In the first half especially we messed up a few tries which, if we had scored them, would have made it an even bigger win.

"We need to execute better but those improvements will come and the decisions will be easier the more consistently they play together."

Thorman also revealed that he plans to run with a leadership group this season rather than a captain, although one player will be designated on matchday to take on the skipper's duties including the coin toss.

Stevie Scholey, Elliott Miller, Carl Forber, Jamie Doran and Dec O'Donnell will take on the responsibility for rallying their team-mates and setting standards and Thorman hopes the approach will increase accountability in his squad.

He was happy to report that Caine Barnes and Hanley Dawson had both trained this week after picking up knocks against Doncaster and should be able to feature tomorrow.

But there was bad news on O'Donnell, who is set to be sidelined for about 10 weeks as he recovers from going under the knife for a knee operation.

The Town boss could explore potential loan additions as a short-term replacement for O'Donnell.