Barrow Raiders coach Paul Crarey has praised “the fantastic performance” of his team after their 18-4 win at Whitehaven.
Raiders are two from two now and currently sit third in the Betfred Championship – although they have a long, hard season ahead.
“The squad has been absolutely fantastic and in terrible conditions the first half performance was about as near perfect as you can get.
“It’s a very difficult place to come and win is Whitehaven, especially for another Cumbrian team, so this was a fantastic performance.
“I thought after we established our 18-0 lead the second half was a real Cumbrian derby, very hard and we did really well to restrict them to one score,” he said.
Crarey had special praise for his two young half-backs, especially Jake Carter who answered a late call to play.
“Ryan Johnston and Jake are part of what we are trying to do at Barrow and I thought they were exceptional.
“Jake put his hand up to play when Jarrad (Sammut) had to pull out even though he wasn’t fully fit and played with his ankle strapped.
“We picked up a few knocks as you would expect from a derby and we’ve lost Sam Brooks for three matches now through suspension.
“I reckon we have 19 fit players as we are at the moment but we will keep an eye on things during the week,” said the coach.
Barrow entertain Newcastle on Sunday, having already beaten them in a pre-season warm-up game.
Thunder won 20-6 at Workington on the opening day of the Championship season but lost 32-14 at home to Batley on Sunday.
