Barrow Raiders head coach Paul Crarey will begin to ease his players up to match sharpness when they host their first pre-season friendly against Oldham tomorrow.

The Raiders have mostly a clean bill of health for the match against the Roughyeds, meaning Crarey can pick and choose which of his senior players can sit this one out, with another friendly against North Wales Crusaders on the horizon in any case.

What supporters inside Craven Park will see, however, is some of the new faces for the 2020 season, including Carl Forster, Connor Terrill and Perry Singleton, while some of the amateur players who have been training with Barrow are also available.

Vice-captain Nathan Mossop won’t feature, however, as he continues his recovery from having a floating bone removed from his shoulder, while Papua New Guinea duo Stargroth Amean and Wartovo Puara aren’t back in the country yet.

Crarey said: “Ryan Duffy and Danny Morrow are away, which we knew about, so we’re probably a bit light in the middle and Jordan Walne may have to go and play in the front row for a little bit.

“We’re going to try and look after Lee Jewitt in these games, leading up to the start of the season, so he won’t get too many minutes - with him being a seasoned professional, we need him for the start of the year.

“Out of the squad of 30, including the amateur lads, we’re running with about 23 and we’re going to bring 20, so we’ll be probably have to mix and match a bit.

“Shane Toal will play a little bit against North Wales, that’s the plan, he’s not going to play in this game, but Ben Garner has killed it during pre-season, I think he has been outstanding in his approach.

“He’ll play with Adam Ford, Sam Jones and Tee Ritson. We’ll look after Tee a little bit because he’ll be playing big minutes when the season starts.

“It’s about us looking after our squad, looking after our senior players and how we’re going to operate with the amateur players that are going to make up our squad up to the numbers we require.”

One area where Barrow are running short is at hooker, with Puara and Mossop both not involved, but Crarey does have a plan from close to home, with a young man who’s captained the Furness Raiders’ under-19 team in line to step up to senior level.

“My son Joe is going to fill in at nine,” Crarey said. “He’s been training with us and he’s come through the academy system.

“A few people that have looked at him have said ‘why isn’t he down there with you?’ and we’ve probably held him back because he’s my son, that’s probably been a little bit unfair.

“He’s got good skills and he can throw a pass as well as anybody, so he’ll get a run and Ryan Johnston will probably have to double up as well because we’ve got Jake Carter and Jamie Dallimore.”