Workington and Whitehaven set to battle in tense derby

Workington Town coach Phil Veivers believes that his team probably need a win more than their Cumbrian rivals Whitehaven at this weekend’s Summer Bash in Blackpool.

Town lost 31-24 at home to Batley Bulldogs last time out, and Veivers wants a win this weekend.

“We probably need the two points more than they do at the moment,” he said.

“Just to keep in touch with the stragglers at the bottom of the table and see if we can get on a bit of a roll with a few wins.

“We’re not overly concerned at this point, we know we’re playing some decent football, we just need to be more consistent defensively and we’ll get the result we’re after.”

Veivers felt his team coped well with Batley’s physicality last week, even though they lost.

“It was a physical game, Batley have got a big set of forwards and we had to match them, which I thought we did,” he said.

“I thought it was a pretty good game of footy and a good advert for the Championship. Probably a fair result for me would have been a draw but we just came up short.”

Town could be without second row Jarrad Stack, who is is doubtful with a shoulder problem.

Whitehaven were thrashed 62-4 by London Broncos in the capital last week, and they now lie second from bottom in the table.

Coach James Coyle acknowledges that his team are in a difficult situation.

“We’re doing it tough at the minute,” he said.

“We’ve got a lot of players out injured and we’re just scraping a side together each week.

“Going to London against a team in a bit of form who are full-time and playing really well this season was tough. They are really strong and fast and if you don’t match that, then you’re in a lot of trouble.

“Last year we came into this fixture [against Workington at Blackpool] in good form and came up with a really poor performance, so I’m hoping the reverse is what we’ll see this weekend.”