Kingstone Press League 1 Preview: Barrow Raiders v Coventry Bears

Looking back on the 44-22 win over Hemel Stags, Barrow Raiders coach Paul Crarey felt that the second-half performance was key to victory for his team.

“We were poor in the first half, our errors were high and completions were low but we addressed it at half-time,” he said.

“In the second half we were round about 80 per cent completion and we scored 26 points so we got to tidy ourselves up a little bit. We’re getting the mind set of wanting to score on every play and it’s not working for us.

“Coventry caused us a few problems, they’ve got a big middle and quite a bit of pace on the edges so it was real tough down there.

“Clubs like Coventry are improving massively and are getting some quality players. We’ve got to go and look after ourselves a bit more and cut out the mistakes.

“We need to get a good win and prepare for what will be a tough end of the season.”

Second row Craig Briscoe is doubtful with an ankle injury while prop Andrew Dawson has a knee problem.

Coventry Bears lost 38-10 at home to York City Knights and coach Tom Tsang said: “It was pretty similar to how we’ve been. We did OK through the early parts of the game and for the first half an hour it was tit-for-tat but our discipline in that last 10 minutes of the half cost us and we conceded three tries just before half-time.

“We dug in in the second half, York threw a lot at us and the score line got a little bit away from us towards the end but we scored two late tries so we’ll take some positives out of it.

“With it being a late kick-off against Barrow we’ll take a leisurely trip up there. The travel can play a part if you let it, but hopefully we can prepare well enough so that won’t be a reason for a bad performance.

“Over the last few weeks we’ve been in the games against these top teams so if we fix up our attack and the discipline, we’re there or thereabouts.”

Hooker Richie Hughes was concussed last week and will be checked.