Carl Forster is back at the scene of one of his most dramatic successes as a coach tomorrow when he brings his North Wales side to Workington.
Forster was player-coach at Whitehaven when the side snatched a dramatic last gasp win over Town with a conversion at Derwent Park, now the Fibrus Community Stadium.
The Crusaders take on Town in the elimination play-off in a clash between the sides who finished fifth and sixth in League One.
Forster, who played at Barrow after leaving Whitehaven, succeeded current Town coach Anthony Murray in charge of the Crusaders and has admitted it’s been a “mad season so far.”
“It’s been in our own hands, we’ve lost it, it’s been in own hands again and we’ve lost it again.
“I certainly didn’t think after we lost to Cornwall that we’d be in the position we found ourselves going into the last game.”
A 62-20 win over London Skolars last week confirmed they were going to contest the Elimination final.
He said: “We’ve almost done it in reverse. The first two months we were only just able to field 17 players and were relying quite heavily on dual registration, and then we went into the business end of the season fully fit.
“Really to deem this season a success we had to make the top six, but on the whole, if you take any of the clubs above us and Rochdale, and make them effectively play on the road for 95% of the season they’d probably be in a similar situation to us, so I think it has been an achievement for us.
“My message to the lads leading up to the last game was that it was play-off knockout rugby already. We just had to make the most of the opportunity.”
