PAUL Crarey felt Barrow Raiders fell into a trap set by hosts Newcastle Thunder during the second half of Saturday's 30-28 win in the Kingstone Press League One Super Eights.

The Raiders looked on course for a comfortable victory after establishing a 30-6 lead 48 minutes in, but the hosts mounted a fightback before eventually falling just short.

Head coach Crarey was impressed with the showing from his side during the first half, but although conceding several injuries did not help their cause after the break, he was disappointed with some aspects of the Raiders' game management.

“After a great first half where we went in comfortable, we said about managing the game,” said Crarey. “We knew they'd come out and try to upset us – and upset us they did and we fell into the trap.

“We lost a few bodies in the second half as well and went through our subs, and with 12 minutes to go we sat on one sub but had to use him, so we lacked a little bit of energy towards the end of the game and we didn't have any ball in the second half.

“They had energy because they didn't have to defend and that's what you get, and we were lucky to hang for the win because we had no ball. We were outstanding in the first half for the way we put points on the board, but then we put the cue on the rack a bit and gave away some soft penalties.”

Barrow lost both Dan Toal and Andrew Dawson to head injuries – the latter suffering a suspected concussion – while Tom Walker volunteered to come off the interchange bench for the final nine minutes of the match despite suffering a hamstring strain.

Crarey is hopeful the trio will have recovered in time to feature against York City Knights at Craven Park this Sunday, with him expecting James Ford's side to provide an even stiffer test than Newcastle.

And while there were aspects of the display he was not happy with, Crarey did not want to be too critical of his Barrow team and was happy just to get two more points on the board, which all but confirmed their place in the play-offs.

“We got the win, we celebrate it and we move on,” said Crarey. “That's three from three, it's always difficult in this division away from home against anyone.

“Newcastle have been great up until the three games before this and we talked before about them being desperate and it was all or nothing for them – and they gave it everything, but it still wasn't good enough,

“I thought our boys did enough in the first half, but again we got drawn into a really ugly second half and they looked the better team, and we lacked a little bit of patience and probably came up with too many errors.

“But we got the job done and we move onto York, which will be tougher than this game.”