Barrow Raiders’ fixtures for the 2020 Betfred League One season will be announced tomorrow, which means the return of the Cumbrian derby against Workington Town and head coach Paul Crarey is pleased to see it back.

The Raiders already know the date of their first meeting with their old rivals from up the coast, as the two sides will face off for a pre-season friendly at Craven Park on Sunday, January 26.

But it will be the first competitive meetings since the 2017 season that the clubs’ supporters will be really looking out for in the fixtures list come Sunday afternoon.

The fact that Barrow have recently signed centre Perry Singleton after his release from Workington simply adds another layer to a clash in which bragging rights are always fiercely contested.

Crarey said: “It’s good to have a Cumbrian derby, it’s something you look forward to.

“I know it’s tense for both coaches, but Cumbrian rugby is full of passion and it’s difficult for any Cumbrian club to have any success because of our location. People don’t understand that.

“They don’t understand that you’ve got to farm your own players and there’s a glut of work and the lads have got to commit to shift work. If they’re working on £30-40,000 a year, then that will come before a training session.

“I spoke to Paul Cullen when he came down here and he said coaching Whitehaven was far harder than coaching Warrington, that’s how difficult it was for him.

“You’ve got to get get players to want to come up here and you’ve got to use the best amateur players without ripping the amateur game to pieces.”

With the Raiders entering the Challenge Cup at an earlier stage next year and them having less league fixtures - League One will be made up of just 11 teams - they are planning to play four friendlies before the real action begins.

In addition to the match against Workington, another friendly is set to be announced early next week, subject to it being rubber-stamped by the opposition club.

Crarey agrees it will start to feel more real once Barrow know where they’ll be going and when, saying: “It’s a bit or a mix-and-match league. It’s a bit like a box of chocolates, you don’t know when you get to grounds who’s playing, with dual reg players coming in, and stuff like that.

“Some of the young fellas get loaned out to League One clubs, so you get good quality young players in this league.

“You only have to look at Doncaster’s signings - they are real top quality and there are some Super League and Championship players going in there, so they’ll be a massive threat in this division, especially at home.

“And then Newcastle as well, we tried to get a player from there. They were on £25,000 and we just couldn’t touch it.

“We’re happy with it all, though, because we’ve got spirit within the camp and we’ve all been together for a while.”