Barrow Raiders head coach Paul Crarey has expressed his disappointment at the way his side lost their Championship game at Swinton Lions.
The Raiders were eight points up with less than 10 minutes left, but the Lions roared back with tries from Josh Eaves and Jordan Gibson to help squeeze out a dramatic 20-18 win.
It was Barrow’s third defeat in the Championship from as many games and for Crarey was the hardest to take.
Crarey said: “It’s really hard to take after being eight points up with as many minutes remaining. We talked about seeing the game out, kicking the ball into the corners and trapping them in, but we didn’t.
“It’s heartbreaking stuff. I can’t fault the effort of the lads, but again decision-making and game management was really poor. We had three chances to take control of the game and see it out, and we didn’t.
“We look like we want to score on every play. I keep saying it week in, week out, and it’s costing us.”
Nut despite being nought from three Crarey insists his side are capable of turning their fortunes around sooner rather than later.
The Raiders are next in action at York City Knights on Sunday, before a home game with Newcastle Thunder at the beginning of March.
“I’ll take all the pressure. You can see that we’re a bit tight in what we do,” Crarey admitted.
“We think we’ve got to win by 20 when we only need to win by eight. It’s disappointing, and there’s a lot of outside noise at the moment.
“We’ve just got to keep everything in-house and keep fighting because the effort from the lads isn’t questioned.
“It’s just about how we manage things and see games out when we’re winning.”
