PAUL Crarey is revving his side up for a testing five days ahead - starting with a tough encounter against Oldham at Craven Park (3pm kick-off).

The Barrow Raiders boss is expecting a battle on his hands against the newly promoted Championship side after last season's epic encounters.

But the Raiders will hardly have time to catch their breath before Super League outfit Warrington Wolves who make the trek to Cumbria next Friday for Liam Harrison's testimonial game, who begins his 10th season with Barrow.

Crarey is delighted to see strike players Cameron Pitman and Dan Toal back in his squad and both, after missing the opening games, are set to face the Roughyeds in Barrow's third of five pre-season friendlies.

Centre or winger Pitman has undergone groin surgery in the off season with loose forward Toal back following work commitments in Scotland. Toal's brother Shane is also set to be back in contention.

“Cameron has had a little operation on his groin and he is back to play this week,£ said Crarey. “Dan Toal is back this week so he will be available. They have done well for us and have worked hard. Dan has been doing extras with Paul Taylor (conditioner) trying to catch up and so has Cameron.”

Barrow and Oldham had four meetings last year ending with honours even in League One – the Raiders scoring a 30-18 home victory with the Roughyeds picking up the spoils after a 28-12 win at Whitebank. They also faced each other in a pre-season friendly with Barrow scoring a 36-26 victory but bowed out in the iPro Sport Cup losing 32-10 in a second round tie.

Crarey is seeking an improvement from his team after last week's 10-10 draw in the Cumbrian derby against Championship Workington Town, but outdoor training was again hampered because of the weather and the Raiders thanked Barrow's DW Fitness Club for their help in preparation for the match.

Looking ahead to the Oldham game, Crarey said: “We had some battles with them last year and what we are looking for is just to see if we can improve upon our performance against Workington.

“We've identified a few things - we didn't really play at the line against Workington, we played off it so it was pretty easy for Workington to defend against us. We had our opportunities to probably win when you look at the tape but our execution was poor.”

Despite last Sunday's horrendous weather which turned Craven Park into a quagmire Crarey felt Brad Marwood and Dan Abram, playing in the half-back roles did well in difficult circumstances and said: “They didn't look out of place, I don't think we looked out of place as a team against Workington.

“They had a very experienced pack and we had nine people making their debut. We battled well we probably didn't take our chances because of the conditions, and we dominated all of the second half.

“It is going to be different against Oldham, they are a very physical side and you have got to front that up and not take a backward step, that's something we will have to try and do at the weekend.

“Also we have got to try and look after our players and get a team out five days later against Warrington, that's the challenge for us. We are going to carry as many players as we can on Sunday and see if we can get through the game with no knocks or injuries.

“We will rotate and try and look after everybody.”

Crarey already has one eye on the iPro Sport Cup and is fully focused on Barrow's first major challenge, saying: “It is more about starting the iPro Sport Cup with the side we want to put out.”