Carter lays down marker for Workington

Full back Brett Carter has encouraged Workington to establish themselves as a competitive Championship side.

With the second tier of rugby league seeing an expansion to 14 teams, Town are one of four teams that earned promotion from Championship One last season after a third place finish. Along with Barrow Raiders and Whitehaven, Workington will be one of three Cumbrian representatives in the division. 

“We need to establish ourselves as a Championship side,” said Carter. “We will be relying on winning our home games against clubs at the bottom half of the table, try and snatch a few victories against the big clubs. 

“We’ve played the likes of Sheffield and Batley previously in the Northern Rail Cup and the Challenge Cup, learning a lot from the games. We’ll aim to strengthen the squad to achieve our goal.”

The re-signing of former England winger Mark Calderwood, who scored six tries in 14 appearances last season, along with the capture of half backs James Coyle and Callum Philips have considerably strengthened Town’s squad.

There’s also the link-up with Super League club Widnes, who revealed last week that the majority of their first-team squad will be available to Workington on dual-registration deals throughout the season.

With a new season on the horizon, full back Carter explained his own aims for the season ahead.

He said, “I just want to be consistent with performances, week in and week out. As long as we perform we can then feed off each other. My performances this season could warrant me a place in Scotlands World Cup squad, couldn’t imagine myself saying that a few years ago. The club needs to get in and around with the newly promoted sides and the rest of the division.”

Workington get their Championship campaign underway against Swinton on Sunday.