Blackpool Panthers start their rugby league season with week with a Northern Rail Cup game against Leigh Centurions on Friday.

After a winter in which their existence as a club was in doubt, the Panthers are back at Bloomfield Road with a new coach and a new-look team.

Former Bradford and Halifax Super League star, Simon Knox, is the new man in the dugout.

The season starts with Northern Rail Cup games against Swinton and newly relegated former top flight outfits, Leigh and Widness, with the Powergen Challenge Cup starting next month and the league campaign kicking in a week later.

Panthers ended their pre-season campaign with a narrow 32-30 defeat against a young Warrington side at the weekend.