PAUL Crarey has been putting in the hours assessing potential new signings as he seeks to maximise the playing budget at Barrow Raiders ahead of their return to the Kingstone Press Championship.

The club have already been contacted by players inquiring whether they would be able to discuss moves to Craven Park, and the Raiders head coach is delighted they are seen as an attractive proposition.

However, that is balanced with the knowledge he and director of rugby Dave Robinson need to extract the maximum from a playing budget smaller than the teams towards the top end of the second tier, as Barrow strive to establish themselves in the Championship after a three-year absence.

“We've had players phoning us who are from League One or the bottom end of the Championship who want to come to us, and that's a good thing,” said Crarey. “But also, they've got to fit into how we play.

“I've spent a lot of nights trawling through Championship games and looking at names we've been given to see if they fit into what we do. Our money has got to be spent very wisely and it will be, because we can't afford to mess up. Our Championship status will be on the line.

“We only get one shot at it, it's going to be so difficult to stay up with the quality of teams and we're vying for that little block at the bottom of the division at the moment to stay up, so we've got to be very selective.”

New signing Alec Susino is one of of those who ticks all the boxes for Crarey, with the prop's strong running and offloading game complementing fellow front-rowers Joe Bullock and Tom Walker particularly.

Skipper Ollie Wilkes and experienced loose forward Martin Aspinwall have expressed their desire to stay with the club for at least one more season, while talks are ongoing with other players who are out of contract as well.

Susino's signing took the squad up to 19 players already ahead of the return to pre-season training on the week commencing November 20, and while he knows it will be difficult to lure players with plenty of Championship experience under their belts, Crarey is confident the squad can meet the challenge.

“The thing with the Championship is a lot of the players are full-time and to come down to part-time they want full-time money,” said Crarey. “We won't compete with teams at the top end of that division who are spending up to £1millon, far from it.

“At the moment, we're the lowest-ranked team in the competition, we're last in so again we've got to make the best of what we can get and the first year is going to be the hardest for us.

“We've got lads who maybe haven't played in the Championship before and don't know what it's about, and we're having to get players in who have got a desire and hunger to play in the Championship for not as much money as they can get anywhere else.

“That's the big challenge for us, but the biggest thing is the majority of our team want to stay.”