Championship Preview: North Wales Crusaders v Whitehaven

North Wales Crusaders coach Clive Griffiths admits Sunday’s Kingstone Press Championship clash with Whitehaven is now a “must win” fixture in the club’s battle to avoid relegation.

Griffiths said: “It’s a must win for all sorts of reasons, including the fact that we’ve let ourselves down badly in our last two games.

“Our completion rate on Sunday (against Swinton) was abysmal, and when you do that you’re asking for trouble.

“The buck stops at my desk and I take full responsibility for the loss, but I also ask the players to look long and hard at themselves.

“It’s going to take one good performance, like we had in Whitehaven, and that gives the opposition something to think about. We can win on Sunday because we know the ability we’ve got.”

Andy Moulsdale is unavailable for Crusaders but Grant Gore should feature, while Whitehaven coach Dave Woods could name an unchanged team.

Woods said: “We want to go there and take the three points – that’s the plan.

“They seem to be a lot better away from home, so hopefully we can take advantage of that.

“They flogged us when they played us at our place, and we’ll probably mention that we owe a decent performance for ourselves and our fans because of the way we played last time.”