Following training this morning, Vikings' caretaker coach John Stankevitch has named his 17 for the trip to Barrow tomorrow evening.

This game marks the return from injury of Dean Gaskell who replaces Gavin Dodd on the left wing. The team is;

Yates; Flynn, Kohe Love, Hartley, Gaskell; Thackeray, Duffy; Ostick, Smith, Gannon, Varkulis, Fletcher, Simm. Subs: Webster, Dodd, Kavanagh, Thompson



No Lee Doran which is a loss, nice to see Deano and Varks back and Thompson.


Missing are

Lee Paterson (April Return)
Stephen Bannister (Returns the end of this month)
Lee Doran
Danny Mills
Iain Morrison (Returns in around 6 weeks)
Matt Strong
Loz Wildbore (banned for this match)

Wildbore also to come back into the mix for the CC game and Toulouse.

Thompson is a surprise selection , lets home he steps upto the plate because he has what we need - size.

The Vicar

He played well in the first pre season game at Saints and went well enough against Haven, dropped away a bit for the Salford and Saints game but he's a welcome return for me.


We need the size as Barrow have quite a big pack.

Yes, a mate of mine who's very close to a member of Barrows pack says that they have a few impressive players .

Brett McDerrmott has stood out for him ( prop ) also Bell the centre is getting good reviews.

Catic, Zeb Lousi , and Two from Fiji to arrive soon .

The Vicar

Right.. what the hell is happening with Mills??? I'm sure he's injured but there have been so many players that have just disappeared off the radar without too much explanation in recent years that makes me a bit skeptical about stuff like this..
Moule, Speakman, Mcloughlin and I'm sure there will be more.

He broke his nose and only returned last week for the reserves.

4th in the pecking order for me behind Flynn, Gaskell and Dodd.

Well that's fine... as long as there is progress being made on his injury... It seems that we have a habit of signing players that then vanish without catching a ball and running in anger..

AS for pecking order.. he has only played for about 20 mins in one friendly. I know there were big hopes when we signed him from sheffield.

He ran in scores for fun with Sheffield last year and i had him down with Gaskell as our strongest starting wingers but Paddy has been sensational this year so you cant leave him out. Im sure once once Mills gets a run he will be good. He was at the Blackpool match yesterday in good spirits.

Oh yeah and that Bell guy for Barrow in the centre is up against Tim Hartley who we all know is a mean fecker in defence.


Toa Balboa and Lightening Paddy to do the honours on the other side.

I don't know much about Hartley other than we (Barrow) tried to sign him last season. If his defence isn't 100% he's going to have a long night with nearly 17 stones of Ian Bell running at him !

Bell also hits VERY HARD - ask Paul Reilly, now of Oldham. We played them in a pre-season game and I bet he's still seeing stars after lining up against Mr Bell !

Should be a good game.