Paul Crarey, the head coach of the BARROW Raiders, expressed his satisfaction in his team after they resumed winning.
At Heywood Road, an unhappy hunting ground for well over a decade, Raiders took on Swinton Lions.
To Crarey’s great joy, they ended that curse with a solid 24-10 victory.
Addressing the official Facebook page of the club, he expressed his pride in the boys for their hard effort.
“It is a traditionally difficult place to win at, as we haven’t won away at Swinton (until Sunday) since 2008, but we have really overcome the odds to win there .
“We are currently having a lot of competition with whatever side out, but we are struggling to put one out every week.”
The Raiders, who had led for the majority of the game, overcame a discouraging 38-28 loss to the Halifax Panthers at home.
Speaking immediately following the match, Crarey acknowledged that, at the moment of speaking, he was extremely angry with him but yet voiced his regret at the way the match had gone.
When he viewed it in the clear, he had a much more favourable opinion of the game.
“Everyone said we played awful (against the Panthers), but after reviewing it, I thought we were outstanding aside from a seven-minute blow-up,” he continued.
“We performed well against Featherstone as well, and we scored some excellent tries against Bradford. However, coming into this game (against the Lions), we focused a lot on defensive structure, inside press, and staying up, and I think it worked a treat.”
Additionally, Crarey thought the Raiders had the appropriate strategy, particularly in the first forty minutes when they forced the Lions to pay.
“In the first half, I felt like we exposed their right side, and in the second half, they fixed up,” he remarked.
We probably had 20 sets to their 12 in the first half, which gave us the opportunity to score some points but also resulted in some really good opportunities being lost scoring points.
They knew they would always shoe it up in the second half. It was challenging to break through once they sent an additional man around on that edge.
Brad Walker (our running back) pulled his calf, so we didn’t have a running game. We were passive on that edge, though, while he put on his boots to play, and we used it to set up the left side, which worked perfectly.
“We kept Bradley in there for, I believe, seventy-two minutes, at which point we substituted Josh Wood, who is playing with a broken thumb.”
This weekend, the Raiders will welcome Wakefield Trinity at home (kickoff at 2:00 pm).
After defeating the Lions on Sunday, they moved up three spots in the Championship table.
