Whitehaven will be keen to add to Oldham’s tough start to the season when the two newly-promoted sides meet on Sunday.

The Roughyeds crashed 58-6 on Sunday in Toulouse, after starting with a 36-6 home defeat to Widnes Vikings.

It has been a testing opening for Oldham who climbed to the Championship after finishing behind Whitehaven in League 1.

Whitehaven were in better heart, despite the 36-20 defeat in London at the weekend, which was a positive step up from the opening home defeat to Swinton Lions.

Head coach Gary Charlton expects to have some of his missing troops back for the clash with the Roughyeds, which kicks off at 6.15pm.

Karl Dixon will be available again after having to miss the trip to London and there will be fitness checks this week for Brett Carter and Connor Holliday.

Chris Taylor, Glenn Riley and Sam Dowsett are also on the injury list but are not expected to be fit for the weekend.

Chairman Tom Todd said: “I think the fact that we went to London without six good players and did as well as we did reflects well on the whole squad.

“The London officials and supporters were very fulsome in their praise for our performance, and that will have given us confidence to go on and tackle the undoubtedly tough programme we face.

“Charlo has been saying right from the off that we needed to make ourselves hard to beat at home, so that other teams didn’t look forward to coming.

“The opening defeat by Swinton was disappointing in that context but having done so well in London, gaining more confidence, I think we can take that forward into the rest of our home programme.”

Whitehaven and Oldham are being tipped for a quick return to League 1 and Sunday’s clash is seen as an important marker.

The Roughyeds have conceded almost 100 points in their two games so far and Whitehaven will be aiming to add to that tally.

In doing so they would be scoring their first points at the Recreation Ground having failed to get on the board against Swinton.

Sunday’s late kick-off time is because the game is being streamed live on the OuRLeague App.