Barrow Raiders will continue to play without fear as they prepare to host Featherstone Rovers this weekend, says half-back Jake Carter.
The Raiders have embraced a difficult recent run of fixtures, recording five successive victories in July before putting in a spirited display against runaway league leaders Leigh Centurions away from home at the start of the month.
Despite losing that match, Paul Crarey’s squad bounced back emphatically, beating fellow play-off contenders Batley Bulldogs 30-12 last weekend.
Carter, who outlined his excitement at testing himself in the Betfred Championship back in April, admits last Sunday’s result outlines just how far the club has come since their return to the second tier.
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“I think we had 12 local lads in the 17 against Batley so it was unbelievable really,” he said. “Regardless of who we come up against at the moment, we don’t fear anyone.
“We pushed Leigh close for quite a while, and anyone that we come up against we know that we’ll have a real go.
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“We are shocking quite a lot of teams, and quite a lot of them are finally starting to take us seriously and realising the sort of threat that we have as a squad.”
In the absence of influential playmaker Jarrod Sammut, the 23-year-old was joined in the halves by Ryan Johnston.
The duo excelled at the Fox’s Biscuits Stadium, and their chance to play alongside each other has been a long time coming, Carter admits.
“We’ve been dying to play together for ages! We know each other inside and out, we complement each other really well because we’ve played together since we were kids,” he said.
“I think it’s a fact that whenever we’ve both played, we’ve not lost for a couple of years, so we have a good little thing going on!
“I was 100% confident and I think that he was too. Don’t get me wrong, before the game against Batley, people were saying that Jarrod was going to be a big miss because he’s been outstanding all season, but me and Ryan are both confident in our abilities.
“On a personal level, I just wanted to put in a big performance and I’m happy that we both did and hopefully it gives Cresta a real headache this week.”
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Sunday’s clash with Featherstone promises to be another test of the club’s ambitions, with second-placed Rovers arriving in Cumbria off the back of an emphatic 72-6 victory at home to Dewsbury Rams last time out.
The Raiders have lost in both league and cup this season against Sunday’s opposition, and Carter hopes that previous results will act as extra motivation.
“We will be going into this game against Featherstone full of confidence,” he said. “They are a brilliant side and I don’t think anyone expects us to win, but deep down that’s what we like as a group.
“We like that underdog status and we’ll go there and surprise a few people.
“The support we’ve had over the last few weeks has been brilliant. It’ll be good to get Craven Park rocking and hopefully give the fans something to cheer about.”
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