BARROW Raiders head coach Paul Crarey couldn’t hide his disappointment as his side lost by the finest of margins against Whitehaven.

At one point, Raiders led by 10 points, but it was Haven who claimed the derby spoils and the Betfred Championship points as a late drop goal from ex-Barrow player Jake Carter sealed a 23-22 win.

Speaking to the club’s official Facebook page, Crarey said: “We created our own downfall really.

“I thought we played some good stuff to go 18-12 up, and I think at one point we were 10 points up, and I said to them we don’t need to score again we just need to grind.

“But I think when the score was level as 22 all they had the composure. We had a shift play where we played lateral, and then we’ve tried to kick a drop goal from 30 metres out with no platform.

“When they got an opportunity, they went, middle, middle, middle set up and drop to goal.

“And that’s what you’ve got to do. If you’re going to drop a goal set up for it. You can’t ad-lib when you are all over the place with no protection.

“We were much improved in terms of discipline from the Widnes game, but technically little things let us down.

“It’s frustrating when you have got a 20-metres set and you don’t play the ball correctly and that happened four times.

“Some of the players have said to me afterwards that it was marginal, but it doesn’t matter you’ve got to do it.”

It was a second Championship defeat in a row for Raiders, who went down 44-8 against Widnes Vikings.

That game saw Brad Walker sent off and Ryan Shaw and Jarrad Stack had spells in the sin bin.

Crarey felt his side had improved on the clash with Vikings, but admitted there was still room for improvement.

He said: “We gave four technical penalties away from not playing the ball correctly in their 20.

“We never made touch on one of the tries, and then we didn’t get a kick away on another one, and we didn’t defend two kicks.

“Ryan King was in at dummy half, and we spoke all week that he would pick up and go or he would come on to a crash ball, and we’ve to deal with him. We didn’t deal with him and it cost us two tries.

“We’re disappointed. We’ve moved forward from the Widnes game and it is difficult to win on the road, but I thought with a 10-point lead (against Haven) we should have pushed on and won the game.

“But onwards and upwards and we go again against York next week.”