New Gateshead coach Steve McCormack faces one of his former clubs when he takes charge of his first Co-operative Championship clash with the Thunder.

Whitehaven are the visitors to the International Stadium, looking to do better than Oldham who provided McCormack with a flying start to his Gateshead career.

McCormack oversaw last week’s Carnegie Challenge Cup victory over Oldham and is now hoping to maintain his 100% record in the north east with a second successive win.

Thunder assistant coach Chris Hood said: “Steve has really lifted everyone associated with the club and you could see that in the players’ performances.

“We’ve already beaten Whitehaven at the Gateshead Stadium but then they taught us a lesson in the following week. That still burns because we know we under-performed that day.”

Whitehaven boss Ged Stokes wants to keep his side’s momentum going after last week’s 26-22 win over Widnes.

Coincidentally it has given Stokes the task of taking on two of his predecessors in successive matches.

Stokes said: “We were really pleased with last week and it gets us back on track a little bit.

“We’re starting to get some semblance of dominance in defence now. That’s something we’ve been chasing for some time now. We achieved some of the challenges we set ourselves as a team and things are starting to take shape.”

He added: “Gateshead are not a team that’s ever lacked confidence. Our first game against Gateshead, we really didn’t dominate. In the second game we played more like the team that we are, but even then I still don’t think we were at our best.

“It’s another challenge for us and we’ll have Rob Jackson and Graeme Mattinson back this week. There’s a bit of a selection dilemma because it’s hard to change a winning team.”

But John Patrick, who scored the winning try last week against Widnes is not in contention because of his work commitments. The plumber is working away and had answered a club SOS to play against the Vikings.

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