Paul Crarey, head coach of the Barrow Raiders, would not have preferred to oversee his 300th game in charge with a 54-0 loss to the Sheffield Eagles on the road.
Crarey conceded that the absence of several important players is currently hurting the Cumbrians, saying the hosts were simply “too good” for them over the entire 80 minutes.
“They are a team that’s on fire and well-balanced at the moment, and we talk about us being unbalanced at the moment because we are down to our last few bodies and the personnel that are missing,” he stated in a post to the club’s official Facebook page following the mauling in Yorkshire.
Max Clarke had to return home due to a death in the family. Matt Costello and Tom Forber are absent.
“Ryan Johnston was out for a short while in the first half due to a head injury assessment, and he returned for the second half.”
Due to a lack of balance on our team, we are currently up against the wall.
“We have to fight hard and work hard to make things right until we get that back.”
“I felt like we gave it everything at times, but against a very strong side, it just wasn’t enough.
There are moments when you have to put up your hands and admit that this team is superior to us.
They seem to be the division’s best team this year, in my opinion.
“I’ll hold my hand up and say they were a better team than us, but right now we’re playing guys that we’re developing and we’re lacking quality bodies (skipper Jarrad Stack, Charlie Emslie, and Shane Toal are among those out).”
Although Crarey believed his team should have seized the lead against the Eagles, he also believed that his team’s mistakes caused them trouble.
“We went toe-to-toe and lost field position (in the first half) due to a few mistakes,” he continued. We refer to this process as grinding, and for twenty or twenty-two minutes—possibly even less—we were pretty good.
They gained field position due to a midfield error, a small offload, another error, a penalty, and finally a try.
“That occurred four times following our scoring and dominance.
“Ellis Gillam grounded the ball on the line, but the call was chalked off, which left me extremely disappointed.”
Ellis was really going bonkers about it, and since it was by the stick, we might have gone six zip up.
However, they are a skillful and dynamic team, and they lead 24-0 at the half after getting their tails up.
“They were clinical, but it took four mistakes and four penalties to put them in that situation.
At halftime, we discussed taking a step back, trying to agitate them, and working hard to put points on the board.
“But on the first play of the second half, we threw an intercept, and I just watched their heads fall.”
