Wounded Batley eye Whitehaven

Karl Harrison’s Batley will be aiming to blast back after suffering a heart-breaking defeat against Sheffield on Wednesday night.

Batley were in control until the final five minutes, when Eagles prop Alex Rowe scored twice to give the hosts a 22-12 victory.

Whitehaven coach Ged Stokes has no new injury concerns after last week’s disappointing defeat against Keighley.

Andy Gorski (pectoral) is missing for the rest of the season while doubts surround the availability David Ford (illness) and Richard Farrer (leg).

Stokes said: “We’re after a bit of a reaction from the boys to last week’s game.

“We had a really good first half and then a really disappointing second half. Keighley punished every error of ours in the second half and I’m disappointed that we gave them a way back into the game.

“We need to find some confidence from somewhere, and that comes from within the players. We’re doing as much as we can to instil that back in them and get them back to the levels of confidence they had last year and the year before.”

Stokes added: “Batley are playing well and they’re always going to be there or thereabouts in the games they play.

“It’ll be a tough task but as the weeks go by we’ve just got to dig deeper and get better at what we’re doing.”