By Martin Morgan

Last updated 12:06, Monday, 01 December 2008

Workington Town have missed out on their traditional Northern Rail Cup home tie with neighbours Whitehaven under the new-look format for the competition unveiled today.

Under the old system, the two west Cumbrian rivals were guaranteed a home derby and a decent payday.

Town attracted 1,276 fans for the home clash with Haven in the cup on February 10 last year. The figure was down on some previous seasons but still up on the corresponding attendances for other group games.

Only 871 saw Town go down to visitors Halifax the previous week and 873 against Keighley at Derwent Park the following weekend.

Town’s home games in the cup next term are against York and Featherstone, neither of which will be as big a money-spinner as a match against Haven would have proved. Town visit Swinton in addition to the Recre.

Coach Dave Rotheram, who backs the new format, said: “We are disappointed not to be playing Whitehaven at home, but that’s the luck of the draw.

“It’s better that next year we play two games against teams from our league and two from Division One.

“Last year we played Whitehaven and Halifax, and had two tight games against Keighley. By the time it came to starting the league, we had a lot of injured bodies.”

Haven have fared better than Town, hosting NL1 rivals Batley – the only team to beat them at the Recre last season – in addition to Workington.

Ged Stokes’s team travel to York in their cup opener on February 8 and finish the group stage with a tasty tie at Leigh.

The two pools are split by division so that each club will play an equal number of Co-operative Championship and Championship 1 clubs. The top four teams in each pool following the conclusion of the group stage fixtures will then progress into an open draw for the knock out quarter-final stage.

The quarter-finals will be played on the weekend of 6/7 June with the semis on 20/21 June. The Northern Rail Cup Final will be held at Bloomfield Road, Blackpool on Sunday July 12.

Meanwhile, the 18 teams not involved in the final will participate in the inaugural Northern Rail 9s celebration weekend which will also take place in Blackpool over the weekend of the final.

Promoted Gateshead open the Championship account at the Recre on March 15.

Arguably Haven’s toughest tasks of the league campaign come in three of their final four games, with trips to Halifax, Widnes and Leigh.

Haven are happy with their league programme, with changes made to the provisional fixture list which saw them make a string of Friday night trips.

“All those Friday night games have now been changed,” said a spokesman. “We still need to find out if we go to Sheffield on a Saturday or Sunday, while the games at Widnes and Halifax have also been moved from a Friday.

“We are grateful to the RFL for their backing. They realised that for part-time players to be travelling to games on a Friday morning or afternoon and getting home in the early hours was not reasonable.”

Workington open their Championship 1 programme with the visit of Rochdale on March 22.