Carl Forster was left to rue moments in the game which went against his team as Whitehaven were edged out 10-6 by Barrow Raiders in the Kingstone Press League One play-off final.

Haven had led 6-4 five minutes into the second half when Dion Aiye chased down a kick from James Newton for a converted try, but then had possible scores from Elliott Miller and Stuart Roper ruled out for a forward pass and knock-on respectively.

The visitors were then undone nine minutes from time when the Raiders' Shane Toal finished off a lightning attack for the game-clinching score out wide, leaving player-coach Forster to feel his side were hard done by.

"Obviously, we're devastated as a camp and we thought we deserved it," said Forster.

"There's no excuses, we thought we were the better team over 80 minutes.

"I can't ask any more than my boys gave, Barrow have been building for this for the last three years and we've had a 12-month turnaround where we've tried to get straight back up.

"We've not done it, but there are no excuses on our behalf. We go again next year, try to build a bit more, try to bring in a bit more quality and depth to our squad, and we'll build from this."

Defeat in the play-off final at Craven Park also meant there was no fairy-tale ending for Craig Calvert and Scott McAvoy, both of whom had decided to hang up their boots at the end of the season.

Forster admitted it had been an emotional day for the club, but he has vowed Whitehaven will bounce back in 2018 when they will once again set their sights on being among the promotion contenders.

"There are some tears and there are some people who are upset, but at the start of the year everybody wrote us off apart from ourselves," said Forster.

"They said we wouldn't do anything this year, but we've turned it around and proven a lot of people wrong this year.

"The club got ridiculed for putting me as head coach and I got ridiculed for the signings I brought in, but the lads have given everything for the last 10 months and, although it was a shaky start, we turned it around like we knew we would and I can't be any prouder.”