BARROW Raiders maintained their unbeaten start to pre-season as they saw off a stubborn Coventry Bears side 36-18 in Sunday's friendly at Craven Park.

Raiders head coach Paul Crarey took the opportunity to rotate his squad for the encounter with one of the Kingstone Press League One expansion teams, which led to a somewhat unfamiliar looking starting 13 featuring a number of players in different positions to usual.

Coventry, who narrowly missed out on a place in last season's League One Shield final, showed their dangers by leading 12-4 with nearly half an hour gone thanks to converted tries from Lewis Fairhurst and Cian Timmins, but the introduction of a number of more familiar faces from the interchange bench saw the Raiders take control and eventually the win.

Having been under pressure after Barrow went nearly the length of the field from the kick-off, Coventry opened the scoring in the third minute. A penalty gave them good field position, with stand-off Fairhurst finding the gap to get over, followed by Will Roper converting.

The Raiders hit back seven minutes later following a good attack when Declan Hulme set up Shane Toal for an unconverted try out wide on the right.

Barrow were then unable to make the most of a long spell of pressure – thanks in no small part to some stoic defending on their own line from the Bears as both Dan Abram and Chris Fleming were held up over the line.

The visitors then managed to push further in front on 28 minutes when, from another penalty, they were able to work their way up field and get their second try after Timmins backed himself, tearing through the defence to score followed by Roper again adding the extras.

Barrow started to bring on some of the big guns after this and they got back to within two points when Ryan Johnston set up Nathan Mossop to race away for a try which Marwood converted.

And the home side were ahead three minutes before the break thanks to interchange man Jamie Dallimore setting up Luke Cresswell, with the young full-back going it alone and shaking off several tacklers for another converted try.

The introduction of Lewis Charnock after the break added some more impetus to the Barrow attacks and it was the former St Helens stand-off who got the next try, dinking through a grubber kick that bounced off the post protector and scooping up the ball to score along with converting.

Ryan Johnston then went over over wide after being set up by Cresswell and Fleming dived over from close range following a play the ball after Martin Aspinwall had been stopped just short of the line.

The Bears did manage to get one back when Matt Reid was somehow able to twist his way out of a tackle and score under the posts, with Fairhurst converting, but Joe Bullock capped off the win for Barrow with their seventh try of the game

Barrow Raiders: Luke Cresswell; Shane Toal, Declan Hulme, Danny Morrow, Chris Fleming; Ryan Johnston, Brad Marwood; Brad Brennan, Dan Abram, Andrew Dawson, Dan Toal, Matty While, James Duerden. Interchange: Nathan Mossop, Ollie Wilkes, Martin Aspinwall, Bradd Crellin, Joe Bullock, Ethan Kelly, Jamie Dallimore, Lewis Charnock.

Coventry Bears: Will Roper; Jamahl Hunte, Matt Reid, Cal Beckett, Hayden Freeman; Lewis Fairhurst, Cian Timmins; Alex Beddoes, Bill Gaynor, Jack Morrison, Grant Beecham, Chris Barratt, Elliot Davies. Interchange: Brad Smith, Keiran Sharatt, James Geurtjens.