PAUL Crarey is challenging his Barrow Raiders side to adapt to a number of changes for the home friendly against Coventry Bears (kick-off 3pm).

The Raiders head coach is taking the opportunity to give starting places to those players who have featured mostly from the bench during the previous two pre-season games, along with resting several members of the squad who are struggling with minor injuries.

The most notable changes are likely to see hot prospect Ryan Johnston starting his first senior match in the halves alongside Brad Marwood, while winger Chris Fleming could move into the centre and play in the midfield with Dan Toal.

Other changes will see Brad Brennan and Andrew Dawson as the two starting props and James Duerden coming in at loose forward, with Crarey looking for those players to show they are capable of stepping up to the mark if called upon once the season gets underway.

“I just want to see how we react under a little bit of restructuring and see how we would cope if we had to move a winger to centre or a back row to centre, just to see how we react and this is a game to do it in,” said Crarey.

“We're going to change things up a bit and we've got to have faith in these lads in our squad that they can do a job.

“What we're looking for is things not to change; we've got good structures we want to stick to and the lads who are coming in might not be as experienced, but they're still going to try to carry out the same commands and structures we have been doing.

“That's what we say to them - when we change up, we shouldn't change the way we play and even though some of these kids are new to the game, they come in and run the same structures every week (in training).”

Tomorrow's match at Craven Park is the first pre-season outing for a Coventry team preparing for their third season in Kingstone Press League One and aiming to build on a year which saw them push North Wales Crusaders for a place in the League One Shield final.

There are a couple of connections between the clubs as well, with prop James Morrison having played for both teams and Coventry president Ron Banks being a native Barrovian as well as a fan of the Raiders.

The Bears have already proven themselves to be one of the stronger southern expansion teams and Crarey is wary of the danger posed by them, with a closely-contested 22-4 win for the Raiders at the Butts Park Arena during the 2015 season still very much fresh in his mind.

“We're not going to take them lightly,” said Crarey. “The threat of Coventry is probably massive; we played them away the season before last and they gave us a right run.

“They've recruited well and they are a good club heading in the right direction, so that's why we've taken them on as a friendly.

“Ron is a big fan of Barrow Raiders as well, so we want to help them on the way and see how our players react as well.

“But we're expecting a stern test and a really close game with what we're doing, mixing it up and putting our guys under a lot more pressure than they would be used to.”

Of those who have started regularly for Barrow during pre-season, Shane Toal looks set to be able to feature against Coventry despite suffering a broken nose in last week's 36-10 win over Whitehaven, as could Danny Morrow after having stitches in a cut around his eye.

Tom Walker and Jarrad Stack are still being rested with slight groin strains and Andy Litherland is set to miss out too, while trialist Tom Loxam is being given a breather after playing against both Oldham and Whitehaven.

And Crarey hopes those players who are being given an opportunity are able to seize it, particularly as places are up for grabs with Max Wiper and Karl Ashall missing for long periods after needing surgery on their respective knee and arm injuries.

“It's just having the confidence in themselves to push on and say 'look, I'm worthy of a shot',” said Crarey. “Rather than watching somebody else take their shirt, they want to fight hard to get the shirt off them and that's what we want.

“Pressure on places is healthy for the team environment and that's what we're trying to do with these players and just change up a little bit because we might lose someone for large periods of the season, which we might do with Max and Karl Ashall.

“We'll start without one of our main nines and one of our centres who did really well last year, so we're going to have to suck it and see - so to speak - and let everybody have a run.”