There’s still a long way to go, according to Barrow Raiders coach Paul Crarey after watching his side’s first win of the season.
A 32-14 victory over Swinton Lions put the Raiders through to tomorrow’s draw for the fourth round of the Challenge Cup and Crarey isn’t getting carried away.
Tries from Danny Langtree, Ryan Shaw, Ryan Johnston, Ben Evans and Luke Broadbent saw them come from 10-0 down and avenge their Betfred Championship defeat by the Lions earlier this season.
The Raiders will find out their next opponents in the Betfred Challenge Cup on Wednesday evening when the draw is made at nearby Millom.
Whilst Crarey was critical of the slow start, he believed his side was dominant in the game.
He said: “We started pretty slow, the conditions were really difficult.
“We started into the wind, and we went in 14-10 up. I spoke to them at half-time, saying it’s a great achievement with the conditions.
“We let in a couple of soft tries early on and Luke Broadbent saved us a couple of times on broken-field play as well, but since then we dominated that second half until the last minute when we shut down.
“Apart from that, I thought we were totally dominant. I think we were a bit tentative with the results going against us and finding our way a little bit rather than grabbing games by the scruff of the neck.
“They could sense that, but once we got our foot in the door, there was no stopping us.”
Crarey believes his side are improving, but he is not getting carried away ahead of a tricky run of fixtures, starting with a trip to Batley Bulldogs – the side that beat them in the play-offs last season – on Monday 20 March.
He added: “We’re improving when we get some field time and we’re improving week-on-week, slowly chipping away at what we need to do.
“You know, we don’t get excited when we win and we don’t get excited when we lose, so we’ll keep our feet on the ground.”
On the injury front forward Ellis Gilliam suffered a broken nose and will be assessed while the squad is set to be boosted by the return of captain Jarrod Stack and hooker Josh Wood, with both likely to be available for the trip to Batley.
