McCormack wants Swinton improvement

Steve McCormack is looking for a marked improvement when Swinton take on Hunslet in the Northern Rail Cup on Sunday.

The Lions lost pre-season games to Widnes and Warrington Under-20s either side of a win in Barrow.

And their opening NRC game at York on Sunday was postponed because of a frozen pitch.

But Lions coach McCormack wants to hit the ground running at Leigh Sports Village (2pm) against Barry Eaton’s Hawks.

“We couldn’t wait to get going and the postponement has caused a few problems as regards players getting time off work,” he said.

“But we’ll deal with it and get ready for Sunday against Hunslet.

“We have lost a couple of our pre-season games but we also played well for spells in those games.

“We have got to make sure those good spells are a bit longer against Hunslet.

“They have a new coach in Barry Eaton who is vastly experienced in this division.

“He has done a lot of work with the Welsh squad and any team prepared by Barry will be well-drilled and very difficult to beat.

“Hunslet have quite a few senior players but Barry is trying to change the culture of the club a little bit and bring some young, quality players through.

“It will be a decent bench mark for us because they got promoted the season before us. “They have done well and knocked some good teams off over the years.”