Barrow Raiders head coach Paul Crarey admits he was bitterly disappointed by his side’s performance in the defeat to Cumbrian rivals Whitehaven.

In typical Cumbrian derby fashion, it was an evenly contested game with fine margins. The visitors registered two back-to-back first-half tries after the Raiders were down to 12 men following Jack Wells’ sin bin but Ryan Johnston would get the Raiders back into the game as they headed towards half-time.

After tries from Aiye and Stack, the game was tied at 14-14, but the hosts conceded a penalty thirteen minutes from time which Whitehaven converted, edging them back in front.

The Raiders had the chance to level the scoring late on, but Jarrod Sammut’s penalty kick was unsuccessful, and the visitors held on to take the victory.

BUY NOW: Home match tickets

Reflecting on the result, Crarey said: “If you don’t take your chances in these games, the other teams will sneak it. It was like the reverse of the Halifax game from two weeks ago when we sneaked a result off of them.

“We conceded two tries when Jack Wells was in the sin bin, we had two balls over the line that we didn’t ground. We didn’t build pressure and if you don’t build pressure, they get you at the other end.

“We let in some soft tries, we talked about how a large percentage of their tries were from kicks and we conceded from a kick that we could have dealt with.

“We were all over the place in attack, frantically trying to get the win rather than building sets.”

JOIN US: Love Barrow Aid 2023

Crarey also felt that his side undid the progress they made in the previous two fixtures against Halifax Panthers, but also gave credit to the performance of the opposition.

“I thought Whitehaven deserved the win. I’m bitterly disappointed as a coach to what we dished up in terms of offloads, squeezing, passes out, lack of support and just chaos in the attack.

“We’ve taken a step back from where we were at Halifax last week and the week before. We got dragged into a fight that we didn’t want to get involved in, we wanted to play the game quickly and controlled but we were never in control of that game.”

Get kitted out in the latest Raiders merchandise by visiting our club shop!