TWO tries from Brett Carter helped Barrow Raiders make it four wins from four in the Kingstone Press League One Super Eights and secured a home play-off semi-final with a 26-19 victory at home to York City Knights.

It was the visitors who struck first, capitalising after Barrow gave away a penalty and putting together an attack which saw David Foggin-Johnston dive over in the corner on five minutes for an unconverted score – despite Lewis Charnock's best efforts to force the winger into touch.

The Raiders hit back four minutes later though, with the ball being worked across the line for Eze Harper to send Brett Carter over out wide, along with scrum-half Charnock converting from close to the touchline.

The match then became something of a defensive struggle as neither team could find a way through – and the closest either came to scoring another try was on 29 minutes when York's Jake Butler-Fleming crashed over, only to knock on in the process of grounding the ball.

Jarrad Stack was then arguably fortunate not to receive any further punishment from referee when he was penalised for appearing to strike Foggin-Johnston on the ground and sparking a brief melee.

Another moment of ill-discipline from the Raiders, going above the horizontal in a tackle, allowed Connor Robinson to kick a penalty a minute before the break and the York half-back followed that up with a drop-goal to edge the away side ahead as the half-time hooter sounded.

Barrow showed much greater composure when play resumed and retook the lead four minutes after the restart when Dan Toal sent Karl Ashall in under the posts for a try on his 150th appearance following a strong carry from Tom Walker.

And the hosts were in again five minutes later, with Harper again providing the pass for Carter to finish near the corner flag in a near-carbon-copy replica of the move for his first score.

Charnock converted both of those scores and then kicked a penalty one minute later to increase Barrow's lead, yet the City Knights did managed to find a way through once more on 69 minutes when a kick from Robinson was batted down for Bradley Hey to power in for a converted score.

But the win was sealed on 76 minutes when Joe Bullock rampaged through the York defence from 40 metres out for a try under the posts which Charnock converted and although there was still time for Hey to get his second of the match, it made little difference to the overall outcome.

Barrow Raiders: Luke Cresswell; Shane Toal, Declan Hulme, Eze Harper, Brett Carter; Jamie Dallimore, Lewis Charnock; Joe Bullock, Karl Ashall, Ollie Wilkes, Jarrad Stack, Bradd Crellin, Martin Aspinwall. Interchange: Tom Walker, James Duerden, Nathan Mossop, Dan Toal.

York City Knights: Ben Dent; Neville Morrison, Bradley Hey, David Foggin-Johnston, Connor Robinson; Jonathon Presley, Ross Osborne; Will Jubb, Ryan Mallinder, Jordan Cox, Joe Batchelor, Kieran Moran. Intechange: Adam Swift, Joseph Porter, Ronan Dixon, Adam Robinson.

Referee: John Roberts.