Barrow Raiders make it five wins from five with Newcastle triumph

Newcastle Thunder 6 Barrow Raiders 50

MUCH of the talk from Barrow Raiders head coach Paul Crarey ahead of yesterday’s trip to Newcastle Thunder had been about his team simply making sure they got in, got the job done, and got out.

So having returned from one of their fellow Kingstone Press League One promotion hopefuls with the points in the bag and a 50-6 victory courtesy of eight tries from eight different scorers, along with Lewis Charnock and Jamie Dallimore being perfect with the boot, he can put a very big tick in that box.

It perhaps did not all go entirely to plan though.

For starters, Jamie Dallimore finds himself on report following a first-half incident, having already been cited and charged for the tackle which injured Macaulay Davies in the previous week’s win over Workington Town.

Added to that were injuries which forced off Charnock and Bradd Crellin, with the latter, in particular, a doubt for next Sunday’s Challenge Cup fifth-round tie at York City Knights.

Nevertheless, it would be overly-negative to dwell on these matters rather than allow the Raiders to savour what could prove to be an important win in what was, at times, a slightly fractious and fiery clash at Kingston Park.

That was underlined by the fact Newcastle had Jack Aldous sent off after 28 minutes for punching Ollie Wilkes, while the home side had a man placed on report by referee Steve Race just seven minutes prior to that.

Barrow still needed to have their wits about them, even with the numerical advantage, and some sparkling play by Thunder’s effervescent full-back Lewis Young ensured they did at least manage a consolation converted try from Tom Shaw.

Even after that, they had their moments, but the imperious Raiders defence once again came to the fore and they have now conceded just 36 points in the league so far this year, while running up more than 200.

Straight from the off, Barrow showed they had heeded the lessons of the previous week’s derby clash at home to Workington and were much more careful in possession, despite an interception on his own line from Thunder’s Benn Hardcastle and an uncharacteristic error from Jarrad Stack in knocking on following a 40-metre break by Shane Toal.

But a superb chip-and-chase from stand-off Dallimore unlocked the Newcastle defence on nine minutes and he gathered up the ball to send captain Wilkes powering over for a score which Charnock converted.

The visitors made some superb inroads from the restart, and it took just four minutes for them to find a way through again, with Stack making the break and passing to fellow former Workington man Declan Hulme for his ninth try of the campaign so far.

Thunder were struggling to break out of their half and, when they did, knock-ons from Brown and Brett Waller killed their attacks. Then, when loose forward Aldous saw red, there only ever looked like being one outcome.

Charnock kicked the resulting penalty and then another break from winger Toal, who spied the gap and stepped on the gas before slicing through the defence, led to him scoring Barrow’s third five minutes before the break.

Fellow winger Luke Cresswell finished off another break – this time from Tom Walker – just before the hooter sounded for half-time.

Within five minutes of the restart, Andy Litherland had added to Raiders’ tally after Ryan Fieldhouse had picked him out.

Newcastle rallied after this and did at least manage to get on the board thanks to Shaw’s persistence and a conversion from half-back partner Hardcastle. To their credit, they continued to search for a way through after this.

Ultimately though, Barrow proved insurmountable, and further tries from James Duerden, Joe Bullock and Ryan Fieldhouse – plus the radar-like kicking of Charnock and Dallimore – saw them rack up the half-century of points and seal the win in style.

Newcastle Thunder: Lewis Young; Ali Blair, Joe Brown, Tyler Craig, Peter Fox; Tom Shaw, Benn Hardcastle; Vincent Rennie, Evan Simons, Liam McAvoy, Harry Aldous, Rhys Clarke, Jack Aldous. Interchange: Aaron Teroi, Matty Barron, Brett Waller, Lee Paterson.

Barrow Raiders: Ryan Fieldhouse; Shane Toal, Declan Hulme, Andy Litherland, Luke Cresswell; Jamie Dallimore, Lewis Charnock; Joe Bullock, Nathan Mossop, Oliver Wilkes, Bradd Crellin, Jarrad Stack, James Duerden. Interchange: Dan Abram, Dan Toal, Tom Walker, Brad Brennan.

Referee: Steve Race.