DARREN Carter believes his Furness Raiders players learnt some valuable lessons which will stand them in good stead for the future in Thursday night's 22-18 defeat at College Rugby League Premier leaders Hopwood Hall.

Raiders found themselves staring down the barrel of a heavy defeat at half-time at the Mayfield Sports Centre, with a long spell of possession seeing the home side establish a 22-6 lead.

But Carter was delighted with the way his side rallied after the break and came close to snatching victory, and that response proved to be one of the most satisfying moments the former Barrow stand-off has enjoyed since taking on the responsibility as the under-19s' head coach.

“Everyone likes to win, but for me it's not the most important thing,” said Carter. “It's about being competitive, teaching players that if you stick in and never get up then things sometimes go your way and I think some of the lessons we learnt at Hopwood, you can't coach it.

“It's impossible to coach it because you have to be in that situation where it's a really tough game, you're being knocked around from pillar to post, the players are very aggressive that you're playing against and how do you respond? Do you give up or not give up?

“The coach can't tell you to do that, you've got to be in that situation where that happens to understand what it's like, so these are lessons which will be invaluable to these lads.

“That was the most pleasing thing. I said to them after the game, that second half was the highlight of my time here so far, by a long way.”

Carter was impressed with Hopwood, who he felt had clearly done their homework on his side in the way they targeted half-back duo Jake Carter and Ryan Johnston to limit their influence, along with being good around the ruck area.

The tight confines of the pitch made it tough for Furness as well, although Carter believes it could be a different game when they face the same opponents again in the play-offs at Craven Park, especially if they show the same attitude.

Meanwhile, several of the Hopwood team are likely to feature when Rochdale Mayfield host Barrow Raiders in the League One Cup next month, with the National Conference League Premier Division side and college both coached by former Super League player Matt Calland.

“It's more like a club team than a college team, I think,” said Carter. “He coaches a lot of those players and they've been together a long time – you could tell because there were a lot of good combinations going between them.

“They had some good players, they looked physically bigger than us all over the pitch, they were experienced and they shaped up well.

“It would have been quite easy to let the game go for the lads, but we had a really good discussion at half-time and we said about never giving up, knowing that we'd have some time and get an opportunity ourselves, and when that comes if we can take something we can get a foothold in the game and that's exactly what they did.

“At the end of the game, I thought there was only one team going to win it and we scored, and just ran out of time to get the final try we needed to get the win. All credit to the lads, every single one of them stood up and was counted.”