AS one of the senior players in the Barrow Raiders squad, it will come as no surprise that Martin Aspinwall has been given some extra leadership responsibilities by head coach Paul Crarey.

Along with skipper Ollie Wilkes, the 35-year-old is charged with helping guide the club's younger players, using all of the experience he has amassed from a 300-plus game career which includes spells with Super League sides Wigan Warriors, Huddersfield Giants, Castleford Tigers and Hull FC.

That role extends to not just what happens on the pitch during games, but to what most people do not see behind the scenes at training and pre-match, where the key is to ensure youthful enthusiasm does not get the better of them.

Not that loose forward Aspinwall's job is to snuff out any enjoyment all together, but someone who had the likes of Great Britain internationals and club icons Andy Farrell and Kris Radlinski to look up to when he first broke into the Wigan team knows the importance of striking the right balance.

“It's not just on the field, it's off the field and at training as well just to help Paul out a bit,” said Aspinwall. “It's hard for him to police everything, so we've just got to try to keep everyone in check a bit.

“Sometimes the young lads are a bit exuberant, which is fair enough because they're young. But sometimes in the changing rooms before a game, it's a bit light-hearted and we've got to try to get it a bit more serious.

“It's keeping everything under control in that respect. We talk on the field as well and we talk as a group, but I suppose Paul looks to us to do a bit of what he does as well, just trying to police things and keep everybody together as well.”

Few would argue the influence of Aspinwall and Wilkes on the team has been a positive one, and it will arguably become even more important in 2017 following the retirement of long-serving Raiders cult hero Liam Harrison at the end of last season.

However, the younger members of the squad and those who have stepped up from the area's amateur clubs all have the experience of last season's run to the Kingstone Press League One play-off final behind them.

Aspinwall, who now lives in Dalton after joining the club ahead of the 2016 campaign, is in no doubt Barrow are well-placed to mount a promotion challenge again this time around and has been impressed with the work done in pre-season.

“We're a lot further ahead than we were last season, definitely,” said Aspinwall. “You can't blame the weather, but it was a bit of a factor and it was atrocious with the rain, and it affects your skills.

“I think we've recruited well, I think we've got an all-round better squad and the younger players who were here last year are a bit more experienced. I think we're definitely fitter as well, so if you compare it to last season we're ahead.

“We were a bit poor in the friendlies, but we've won all of them this year and I know you can't always go off them, but they're there for a reason. We've had a good start, but we're not going to get carried away because we know it's a tough season.

“We're probably going to be a team people might think are a scalp, along with Toronto, because the bookies have made us second-favourites. Teams are going to get up for us, so we've got to maintain that consistency throughout.”

A York City Knights side coming off the back of an off-season which saw their very existence hanging by a threat provide the first test of the Raiders' League One credentials a week today at Craven Park.

But before then is tomorrow's Challenge Cup third-roud tie at home to Rochdale Mayfield, who they defeated 46-18 in the League One Cup last week – a tie which Aspinwall believes there is plenty to improve on after the game became slightly disjointed in the second half.

“You make an error and then you make another one and it just gives them a little bit of confidence, and we let them back in a bit,” said Aspinwall.

“We probably had another couple of gears in us which, hopefully, we'll show this week because after that, the league starts properly so we've got to be on the ball. I don't think we can be too down because they're probably the best amateur team in the country and we were playing them at home.

“We knew they'd come out tough and fired up, and we had to negate that, which we did. Then we went up to another level and put some metres on them through the middle. Defensively, they weren't making a lot of progress so that probably laid the platform for the rest of the game.

“We know a bit more about them now, what they do and their little traits – they fly up at the line a lot. But Craven Park is a bigger pitch than that, so hopefully we can be a bit more expansive.”