Paul Crarey, the head coach of the Barrow Raiders, said, “WE go again,” as his team lost the Challenge Cup over the weekend.
The Raiders lost against Oldham, a high-spending team, 42-04, eliminating them from the competition.
To make matters worse, Crarey’s team sustained several injuries. As a result, he will need to rearrange his lineup for Sunday’s 2025 Championship curtain-raiser against Hunslet.
He added, “We just weren’t good enough really, but there was a little bit of adversity there, and there will be a little bit of adversity this week on who we are going to play in the halves,” in an interview with the club’s official social media accounts following the cup loss.
“Looks like our two hookers have hamstring problems, and Ryan Johnston is out now, so it’s going to be a difficult period for us getting a balanced side on the field against Hunslet.
“But there were positives and there was a lot of scramble from us. We defended well for long periods.
“So, we’ll go again this week, it’s not the end of the world.
“They (Oldham) are a good side and have spent well.
“They were very, very slick. We hadn’t seen that from them in their friendlies, but they came out of the blocks against us.”
Crarey felt the time spent in the sin bin by Ramon Silva and Ryan King proved costly for his side, but while happy to praise their opponents, the Barrow boss did feel his side were also hampered by injuries.
He added: “We lost Ryan Johnston with a straight HIA (Head Injury Assessment), so he won’t play for 11 days, we lost Aaron Smith after nine minutes in the first period with a hamstring, so (Alex) Bishop went on and did, I think, 71 minutes at number nine, and he hasn’t played all year.
“So, we had to make some big changes. (Matt) Costello had to go in the halves, and we were a little bit disjointed, and not fluent.
“Taking nothing away from Oldham, I thought they were very good.
“I think they gave away 16 penalties, but they were for infringements at the ruck, and they were slowing us down.
“They were very smart, so we were getting a penalty on play two and play three, and we had no fluency.
“But all credit to Oldham, I though they were great to be honest.
“Like I say we had to make a lot of adjustments and the scoreline was a blow out.
“But maybe the scoreline isn’t a fair reflection of the work we put in.”
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