PAUL Crarey hailed the contribution Ollie Wilkes has made at Barrow Raiders after the captain reached the 450 career appearances milestone in last Sunday's Challenge Cup win over York City Knights.

The 36-year-old Ulverstonian, who has been granted a testimonial this year, has been one of the mainstays of the side since returning to the area after signing from Leigh Centurions for the 2016 season.

And Barrow head coach Crarey was again impressed with Wilkes' leadership skills coming to the fore again in the 50-28 triumph over York, including his honest words at half time in assessing his own display.

“We talked before the game that we could have put five of our guys in and they wouldn't have got near that,” said Crarey of Wilkes racking up that number of games.

“We wanted to send him out with a win, and at half time he was absolutely spot on when he stood up and said 'I thought I was a bit flat in the first half, and we all need to turn it on', and we did that.

“I said my bit, and Ollie stood up and said 'I'm one of them, I need to fix up what I'm doing', but I thought he was magnificent on his two spells.

“He's played 450 games, which is outstanding, and he's still wanting to play at a high level, push us forward and guide these young players around. I can't praise him highly enough for what he has done here.”

Martin Aspinwall is another experienced player whose influence Crarey has repeatedly praised, with the loose forward making his return to the side after two weeks out due to illness in the win over York.

Crarey will be looking for the duo's nous to come to the fore again into the build-up to and on Sunday when the Raiders face another important cup tie – this time at home to Oxford where a place in next month's League One Cup final at Bloomfield Road is up for grabs.

“They're getting on in years, but you know why their brain is still active and they help me massively in my coaching, and they keep the younger players in-house,” said Crarey.

“They're a great group of players, but we're not the finished article and we're not going to win every game. We keep saying that, but it's good while it's working.

“We've got some stuff to show them on video of what we're doing wrong and we need to focus for Oxford because if we don't turn up on Sunday, it could be embarrassing in front of our home crowd.

“But we want to take this group of fans to Blackpool – we've said that from week one. It will be tough if we get there on the back of Toronto, but we're going to try to do it and we've got a mountain of games.”