Team bonding could play a vital part in the York City Knights' crusade to Cumbria this weekend when they take on unbeaten Barrow.

The long trip north could offer a daunting prospect with hours on the road threatening concentration, but Richard Agar's men will be hoping to make the most of it and come away with the win.

Second row Darren Callaghan said: "Barrow's a tough one. We'll prepare for it this week and hopefully come Saturday we'll do the business again. We know it's going to be a tough game - it is always is up there against them - but we'll go there looking to come away with two points.

"The main thing is we've got to prepare right, especially as we are going up on Saturday. We need to get focused and bond together.

"But because we're going up on the Saturday, we get more bonding as a team. I think we're going to train in the afternoon and then go up after that so we can spend a bit of time together, and hopefully it will pay off with the two points come Sunday."

On a personal level, Callaghan will be hoping for a repeat of his man-of-the-match performance against Sheffield Eagles in their 34-16 win.

He set up Mark Stewart twice and went over himself, and was also a staunch defensive figure in a game dominated by big pack tackles.

He said: "It went really well. Sheffield are a top team so we knew we had to be up to our guns and we've been working hard all week. We knew we had to have a solid game in the forwards and in the first 20 minutes we dominated so it was quite good really.

"It felt really good - especially against my old team. It can go either way when you face your old team. Fortunately I had a good game and got man of the match which I fully enjoyed.

"I set Mark up for one in the corner and obviously when I went over myself I enjoyed that. In the second half we controlled it."

He added: "The fans were brilliant again on Sunday like they always are so a big thank you to them for that."

Updated: 11:13 Tuesday, May 04, 2004