Batley Bulldogs continue to ‘look upwards’ - but Mark Moxon may be without two key players for ‘tough’ trip to Barrow Raiders

White, who has incredibly made a record 109 consecutive appearances for the club, beating the previous honour of 103 games set by Richard Price between 1996 and 2000, picked up an ankle injury in last Sunday’s 22-18 win over York Knights.

And while the versatile back will be assessed in the build-up to the Bulldogs’ visit to Cumbria, Mark Moxon will definitely be without another key player - Alistair Leak - for the round seven Championship fixture.

The head coach revealed: “Ben White rolled an ankle so we need to check on him. He would be a massive loss for us bearing in mind he’s played 109 consecutive games.

“That is one that I am a little bit worried about at the moment.

“Leaky is unavailable with work so he will be another massive loss. He was great again at the weekend.

“So we have a couple of challenges to deal with but we are in a good place to deal with them.”

On the challenge that his side face at Barrow, who were soundly beaten 54-0 by Sheffield Eagles last weekend, Moxon said:

“Barrow are a good team and there are some good players in there. Barrow at Barrow are a different proposition to Barrow playing at Sheffield. They are a good team with some good players so we know it is going to be another tough task going up to Cumbria.

“It’s always tough going up there. This will be no different. We are expecting a tough battle.”

On recent performances which have seen his side start to look up the table rather than down, Moxon said:

“We have been performing okay. It was just a matter of time before we started clicking and the penny started to drop and we started picking up a few wins and moving up that table.

“The rewards are great. If we can get a win we’ll have gone from being around the bottom area to being mid-table looking upwards.

“The rewards are great again and then it’s a week off after because of the 1895 Cup. It is a big week for us and we are focussing purely on Barrow.

“We feel we have maybe turned that corner a little bit now and have got that little bit of belief and momentum but we just need to keep it going.

“Momentum is a big thing in rugby league. If we can keep going and keep building, it will be nice going into the break.”