Barrow Raiders head coach Paul Crarey has relived his team’s nightmare journey to York for the Summer Bash – and expressed his delight at the players’ response on the field.
The 32-16 victory, their second win in three games, moved the Raiders out of the Betfred Championship relegation places.
But it hadn’t looked promising as Crarey and his team had a difficult trip getting there for the Round 13 clash.
“I thought it wasn’t looking too good in the morning when we were stuck in the lay-by when the tyre blew off the bus
“It was 40 minutes for another bus to come, and then we got here with an hour to spare.
“We needed to start well, and I didn’t know if we were going to start well after what happened. Credit to the fellas for coming out and performing.
“It was a very difficult first half in the heat, but we got it together and showed our class really, and opened them up on numerous occasions.
“It was a tough game – it was all about winning and everyone is in the mix. It’s a very tough competition this year, with a fine margin between winning and losing.
“We managed to cross that line and find a way to play and win, scoring some great tries.”
After the game, Crarey was hopeful that the Raiders can now start looking towards getting into mid-table, and away from relegation trouble.
He said: “It’s great to get the win, which takes us out of the bottom two now.
“We’re not far away from that mid-table as long we can put a few results together.
“I would like to thank the travelling fans. I know there was only a handful, but we could hear them and we appreciate them coming down. It’s a long way to come down on a Bank Holiday Weekend. But we really appreciated it.”
