PAUL Crarey never believed Barrow Raiders were in danger of slipping up in yesterday’s 26-18 win over Keighley Cougars, despite conceding they were not quite at the levels expected of them for parts of the game.

An 18-0 lead at half-time underlined the home side’s dominance before the break, yet it proved much more of a physical battle when play resumed, with the visitors managing to grab three tries of their own compared to Barrow’s one.

Two of those Keighley tries came in the closing stages though and Raiders head coach Crarey was satisfied that his team had done enough by that point to make certain of the win.

“I thought in the first half we looked comfortable and probably dominated the game,” said Crarey. “Our structure was good and we stuck to it, and we said at half-time that they would get a rocket and come out firing, and the game got really scrappy and we got drawn into some incidents.

“All games against Keighley are tenacious and a dog-fight, and a war, and with five or six minutes to go, that’s when it really erupted, but I thought we were really slow in the second half and it played into their hands a bit.

“We were at about 80 per cent of what we needed to be and I thought we were cruising a bit.

“We talked about that at half-time where we were comfortable and just doing enough, but whether we had an eye on next week, I don’t know.

“But I don’t think we were in any danger of losing the game – I thought we controlled it well, but we were just slow.”

Barrow were boosted by the return of Liam Harrison to the fold after three games out, but the sight of half-back Jamie Dallimore limping off towards the end with a knee injury has given Crarey much to ponder heading into the Toulouse game.

Dallimore will be assessed at training tomorrow night along with the other members of the squad who are carrying various knocks and minor injuries, with Crarey in a quandry over whether to go all-out for the win in that game to set up a promotion showdown in France the following week or give an opportunity to those who have not been playing recently.

“It’s a decision we’ve got to make whether we rest some bodies or go there full tilt and then go again, which would be a massive drain on our squad,” said Crarey.

“We’ve got a couple of injuries and a short turnaround where we’ll have to decide who we’re going to take, and we’ll probably need to know by Tuesday night.

“We’ll just see what sort of side we can put out and how we’re going to address the situation, whether we’ll have a crack at it or rest a few bodies.”