PAUL Crarey is waiting to find out how long Karl Ashall will be out for after the hooker suffered a suspected fractured wrist in Barrow Raiders’ 22-22 draw with Oldham.

Ashall, who quickly became an important part of the Raiders side after joining from North Wales Crusaders last year, was forced off after just six minutes against the Kingstone Press Championship outfit.

Crarey has no concerns about the team being able to cope in his absence, with Brad Marwood and Dan Abram both impressing against Oldham, plus Nathan Mossop in line to return from his dislocated ankle in this Sunday’s friendly against Whitehaven.

Nevertheless, Ashall’s injury is a concern for the Barrow head coach and he hopes it does not turn out to be as serious as feared.

“He said to me it was a stinger and he could go back, but there was no way when we had a look at half-time that he would go back,” said Crarey, who also had prop Tom Walker come off with a hamstring strain.

“He couldn’t hold his wrist up, but we’ve got Mossy coming back for the Whitehaven game, and we’ve got two good lads in Brad Marwood and Danny Abram who were electric around the rucks and gave good service as well.

“We lost Mossy for a large part of last year, we might have to do without Ashy for this, but fingers crossed. It’s the first friendly, we’ve lost two players, but that’s why you need a healthy squad and we’ve got a healthy squad for this year.”

Another player who caught the eye was winger Shane Toal, with the former Scotland under-19 international running in four tries and being declared as man of the match by Crarey.

That was not just for his haul of tries, but also for the way he conducted himself during the game and the Raiders boss was pleased to see Toal produce such an impressive display after spending a large part of 2016 out of the team due to injury and the form of others.

“They’re young fellas and there’s peaks and troughs for them,” said Crarey. “Last year, the Hunslet game away probably cost him a spot, and the lads came in and did a really good job.

“He’s started like a house on fire this time, he scored two well-deserved tries when he had to really work hard for them on the right edge and he took his chance.

“He’s a great finisher, he’s got tremendous pace and he did really well – and I thought Luke Cresswell did well.”

Overall, Crarey was satisfied with how Barrow performed in their first run-out against professional opposition ahead of the 2017 League One season, particularly with several of the club’s senior players unavailable.

And while he was disappointed with the manner of some of the tries the Raiders conceded, he believes that was at least in part to using so many different players ahead of going with 20-man squads for the remaining three friendlies.

“We had a lot of quality out, so I’m pleased with how we executed our plays and scored some well-worked tries,” said Crarey.

“I’m disappointed in conceding some soft tries and when the season starts, we probably won’t concede them. It’s probably a lack of concentration, no match practise and mixing and matching 23 or 24 players.

“They’re a Championship side, we’ve got a game under our belt and we probably out-played them at times in the way we played, and I’m happy with that.”