STUART Littler has confirmed that two senior forwards who didn’t play in the Wakefield Trinity friendly will be in contention for selection when he names his squad for this coming Sunday evening’s Betfred Challenge Cup second-round tie against Lock Lane at the Vestacare Stadium again, kick-off 6pm.
Jordan Andrade and Emmerson Whittel were following Covid protocols so neither had a run-out against Trinity, but both will be available to play against the top-rated community club from Castleford, who reached this stage with a stunning 18-10 home win in round one against current NCL champions Thatto Heath.
Young second-row man Callum Cameron will definitely be out — still suspended — while the prospects for injury victims Brad Jinks and Kian Morgan won’t be known until later in the week.
Said Littler:
“Everyone who played against Wakefield came through relatively unscathed although Jamie Pye took a knock, which hopefully won ’t prove too serious.
“We played some very good stuff at times but, as you would expect in our first run-out with such a lot of lads who were playing together for the first time, there were things to work on too.
“We’ll be doing the break-down and the analysis this week and looking at how we can improve. As I say, there were lots of things I was really happy about in the 24-24 draw, and the fans seemed well satisfied with what we did, but from the coaching point of view it was a bit clunky at times, although, to be fair, that was only to be expected in game one.
“The main thing is we got a game under our belts and 20 lads got on the field. I tried to give everybody who was available a run-out but it will be different in the cup-tie, obviously.
“The whole thing will be different because it’s a game with a lot of meaning behind it.”
Stuart and his Lock Lane counterpart, Paul Couch, have already cast their eyes on their respective opponents.
Stuart was a face in the crowd when Lock Lane upset the form book with their first-round win against Thatto Heath, while Paul Couch was at the Vestacare Stadium last Saturday evening to look at how we played and what was what in the friendly against Trinity.
That in itself says a lot about how much this pro-am tie means to both clubs.
