TRY not to mention the 'p' word to Paul Crarey – at least not yet, anyway.

With the League One Cup already in the bag and Barrow Raiders heading the sides chasing Kingstone Press League One leaders Toronto Wolfpack, hopes are high the club are on course to go one better than last year and earn a place in the Championship.

Given how the full-time Canadian side stocked with former Super League and international stars are expected to go straight up as champions, Barrow's most likely route for promotion will be via the play-offs and their credentials will again be put to the test tomorrow when travel to Doncaster

An unkind fixture list for the first phase of the season, playing most of their expected Super Eights rivals away, has added to the challenge, and head coach Crarey insists promotion has, so far, hardly been mentioned among the players and coaching staff.

“Probably, as a group, we haven't really talked about promotion,” said Crarey. “Everyone says about promotion and all that, but when there is only one spot, you've got to be very fortunate to be healthy throughout the year and, with the fixtures we've got, we've got to be really good on the road.

“Every game against a top-eight side is tough and it's like them coming to us. We've got a great home record, we're playing Doncaster away and we don't get to play them at home.

“We've got to do it tough as a team, and we've had some tough away fixtures, but we've come through. We've been to Keighley and won, we've been to York (in the Challenge Cup) and won, and we've been to Newcastle and won, and this is another one that's thrown at us.”

Doncaster go into the match on the back of three straight wins under the caretaker management team of Pete Green and Rhys Lovegrove, who were placed in charge when the club made the controversial decision to part company with Gary Thornton.

That run includes winning 30-26 at Workington Town last Sunday, with the South Yorkshire side sitting fourth in the League One standings, just three points behind Raiders.

The hosts will be without former Barrow forward Jamie Thackray as he serves the last game of a suspension, although the likes of Jason Tali, Makali Aizue and skipper Kyle Kesik mean there are plenty of threats throughout the team.

Raiders will also have to contend with the match being played on the smaller confines of the athletics facility next to Doncaster's Keepmoat Stadium, due to reseeding work taking place on the pitch, which Crarey believes could make a difference to his side's approach.

“It does in the fact that I've never played there or seen the stadium, so it's new to me,” said Crarey. “I've asked a few questions and the pitch is a little bit smaller.

“Doncaster's ground was probably good for us to play on; it's wide, it's quick and we've done really well there. We won last year by 40 points, but this is going to put us on a really small track.

“They're big up front and big in the outside backs, they've got two good halves who kick the ball really well and they've got a very good team.”

As for his own side, Crarey is eager to cut out the mistakes which almost proved costly in last Saturday's 28-20 win at home to Hunslet – particularly when it comes to being more clinical in getting over the try-line.

“We looked at the video and we're not far off, but there are things we need to improve,” he said. “We bombed three or four tries against Hunslet and kept them in the game because we gave the ball away cheaply, so we've got to get back to being clinical.

“We keep saying it week in, week out, but we've got to start doing it. We're winning, but if we don't sort it out then one game will bite us and this is probably a massive gave for us because we'll have a run where we play some of the southern teams as well after this.

“Hunslet was massive after the final and we didn't know how we'd react, but we came through it. Doncaster is another massive test on the road for us and it's always a really tough battle going there.”