NATHAN Mossop may have been unaware of reaching two significant milestones in his Barrow Raiders career, but it will still be a proud moment for him when he steps out on to the field for this evening's Challenge Cup tie at home to Keighley Cougars.

The hooker is set to make his 150th appearance for the club, having reached the mark of 100 starts in a Raiders shirt during last Sunday's 50-14 win at Coventry Bears in Kingstone Press League One.

Barring spending the 2012 season with South Wales Scorpions (the team now known as South Wales Ironmen), Mossop has been a near-on ever-present for the club since stepping up from the successful Millom amateur team eight years ago.

It was a move which saw him follow in the footsteps of father Steve – who represented Barrow with distinction in the pack between 1980 and 1992 – and, given that family link, it is perhaps no surprise the younger Mossop feels a connection with the club.

“I had that short spell at South Wales, but Barrow is a club that has always been close to my heart, so to have made 150 appearances for the club is good on a personal level,” said Mossop. “Hopefully I can get to the 200 mark for my next goal and try to go for that.

“Going and supporting my old man when I was younger means you're brought up with it in the household and watching him play. It's nice to follow in his footsteps a little bit. I'm not sure how many games he played for Barrow, but hopefully I can surpass how many he played.”

For the record, Mossop senior made a total of 184 appearances during his 12-year Barrow career, so it may not be long before the 29-year-old finds himself passing that total too.

Coincidentally, it was against tonight's opponents Keighley that Mossop made his bow back in 2009, playing off the interchange bench in the 34-7 Northern Rail Cup victory over the Yorkshire side.

And while he admits he cannot remember too much about the game itself, the memories of the build-up to the match after being told he was going to feature by then-head coach Dave Clark (the man he followed to South Wales) are still very much fresh in the mind.

“At the time, there was no greater feeling than playing for your home professional club,” said Mossop. “I'd been playing for Millom open-age for a few years where we'd won the league etc. and it was good to do that for them.

“But I'd followed Barrow since childhood with my old man playing for them, so it was a great feeling. I was slightly nervous and there was a bit of anxiety leading up to the game as to how I'd go, but there were some good people looking after me at the time as well.”

Tonight's fourth-round tie will mark the second occasion Barrow and Keighley have met this year, having already played in a pre-season friendly and with match-ups in both the League One Cup quarter-finals and the league to come as well.

Given their frequent meetings in recent years, it is no surprise something of a rivalry has developed between the two clubs, and Mossop expects a typically robust encounter – particularly on the back of the Cougars suffering a shock 46-22 loss away to University of Gloucestershire All Golds last weekend.

“It seems like we get Keighley every year in either of the cups – I feel like I've played Keighley more than any of the other teams in this division!” said Mossop.

“But it will definitely be a tough game; they'll be licking their wounds from last week, and when I read the scores on Sunday, it seemed a bit of a shock that Gloucester had turned them over by a substantial amount of points.

“They'll turn up and they'll be looking to rip in to try to turn us over, but there is the incentive of possibly playing a Super League team in the next round, I'm sure the lads will be excited by it. It's about the next few games for us and putting in a performance on Saturday night.”

Indeed, maintaining the impressive start to the season is the aim for Mossop tonight and he puts that down to the good atmosphere in the squad, which head coach Paul Crarey has worked hard to build.

“The biggest thing we've got at the minute is the team spirit is probably the best it has been for a long time, and I think that impacts throughout the team,” said Mossop.

“The lads want to work for each other and they're buying into what Paul is trying to instill in us each week. We've got good structure that Paul and his team work on and we've got lads who want to come and play rugby and work hard, so it's a good healthy balance we've got at the minute.

“When you're winning, it creates a good atmosphere around the club, people are a lot happier and they enjoy coming to training.

“As long as we're consistent with what we're doing, stick to everything we do in training and follow up on the game-plan, hopefully the next four weeks will go on our side.”