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.

We might see Toa swapping sides then, Toa can take anyone down with his kung fu style smash leaving his opponents with broken ribs. If he's 17 stone then his fancy footwork should also beat him.

Bell is very fast for a big guy as well. Regardless of TKL's Kung Fu prowess, he'll have his hands full.

Liam 'The Bull' Harrison, our other centre is also a real handful.

Barrow's hopes depend on how the forwards play. We've a pretty big, mobile pack. If they hit the straps they're very hard to contain.

Forget our result as Halifax. We played several academy players due to injuries. We'll be a much toughwe prospect tomorrow.

We have plenty of death machines in waiting

Scott 'the bounty' Yates

Richard 'muscles' Varkulis

Richard 'the pain' Fletcher

Paddy 'lightening' Flynn

John 'oxygen' Duffy

James 'fire starter' Webster

I think Doran is missing because of work commitments. I certainly cant remember seeing him pick anything up in the Blackpool game.

Thompson must be in for size only because he hasnt anything else to offer over Dave Houghton and his form has been very poor of late. He got easily knocked around in the reserves last week and didnt look inetersted at all.

I dare say we'll struggle up there as wel always do travelling into Cumbria. Here's hoping we can grind something positive out.

what ever, you got smashed and a true barrow fan sat by me said we had taught them a lesson of what the Championship is about

go and put them out of there misery, Good luck widnes and bring on our game at the Shay i n two weeks time

see you then

Fax did teach us a lesson on the day, but we didn't do ourselves any favours - 2 in the sin bin, umpteen penalties.

It'll be different when the league starts and we have a full squad to pick from.

Gloat while you can.

Just stuff em please then we can qualify,regards, a cougars fan.!

Defeat is a bitter pill to swallow!!!

Whats with the " WE " What shirt were you wearing........Oh thats right a replica





Trust me mate once Barrow are at full strength and all the remaining signings are available I am more than confident that the alleged " Mighty Fax " will be beaten convincingly. SRC is quite right by saying that the game between Fax & Barrow should not be looked into to much due to the side put out by Barrow.

At full strength Barrow will be force to be reckoned with. I'll admit that im not to sure what will happen if a few injuries are picked up along the way, my point is based on Barrow at full strength against any Championship side.

Dont think we did so bad considering were a division below and all the money barrow have spent,but your bum was twitching at half time though.!!!

Is the match on t wireless tonight?

I believe it's live on BBC radio Cumbria.

Sadly I have to go somewhere, so I won't even be able to listen to it myself.


Brilliant avatar by the way!