Furness Raiders head coach David Cairns wants his side to put recent results behind them when they welcome Hull FC Academy to Craven Park this afternoon.

It is not long since the Raiders’ under-19 side and Hull last crossed paths, with Cairns’ boys going down to a 20-12 defeat against a side that included a good number of academy players last month.

A farcical 112-6 blow-out against an under-equipped Huddersfield Giants Academy then followed, but Wakefield College proved a much bigger step up in their last outing, as they were well beaten 34-6 on their own patch two weeks ago.

With the return against Hull representing Furness’ last match before the Christmas break, Cairns is keen for his players to ensure that they finish the first half of their campaign on a winning note.

He said: “We’ve had a couple of bad results, but that Wakefield side that we faced were a good side and having said that, if things had gone slightly differently early in the game it could have been different.

“But they got on top fairly early in the game, which made it hard for us to claw it back. I think that was a learning curve for our guys that they need to stay in the arm wrestle for as long as they can, so once your out of it and once a team does dominate, then you’ve got problems.

“You don’t just become a bad side overnight and the lads had a bit of a chat the other night after training and were talking about the bad results and I told them ‘don’t worry about it.’

“All teams get beat - Australia get beat at rugby league every now and again, Great Britain got beat in three or four Test matches not long ago, so you’ve got to let them things pass.

“You can’t dwell on it, you’ve got to try and focus on the next game.”

Due to the 2pm kick-off, the Raiders are set to be without several players due to work commitments, including Evan Jones, Elliot Bibby and Sam Purslow, while Ethan Bickerdike is suspended and Josh Holmes injured.

Cairns has had to draft some 16-year-olds into the squad, but he is still confident the team he will be putting out will be capable of getting the home side back to winning ways.

Cairns said: “I’ve had a few phone calls from lads who weren’t originally going to play saying they could make arrangements to get out of work if we were short, which is good.

“They can’t always get out of work, but when we’re short is nice when lads say they can give it another bash and see if they can be there.

“We’ll have enough players, anyway. There are a few missing, but we’re still strong in our middle.

“I’ve had to make one or two positional changes and I’ve put Max Moore back to full back and I’ve put Jack Crarey at six because he knows all the players and he’s good at the structure side of things and there are four 16-year-olds who are playing.”