THERE will be little respite for the Barrow Raiders squad during the upcoming bye week as Paul Crarey strives to ensure there is no let-up as the season reaches its climax.

The league season pauses across the professional game this weekend due to Saturday being the Challenge Cup final, with the Raiders squad being given that time off.

But otherwise it is business as usual, with two training sessions during the week, and head coach Crarey wants to make sure Barrow are at their best when Cumbrian rivals Workington Town visit Craven Park a week on Sunday.

“We need to be on it,” said Crarey. “Workington will come with a big threat and they bring a lot of loan players with high quality from Wigan.

“We've got to be wary of the threat they pose with the quality of players they have got, as well as the loan players; Stuart Howarth played Super League, Phil Joseph and the Phillips brothers (Callum and Brett) are outstanding, and people like that.

“They've got some good people there, and we've got to be ready for them and not be complacent. We just want to carry on what we're doing and look after ourselves.”

Sunday's 26-19 win over York City Knights ensured Raiders secured home advantage for the Kingstone Press League One play-off semi-finals by clinching a top-three spot.

It is now shaping up as a battle between them and Whitehaven to decide which team takes second and therefore makes certain of a potential play-off final being on their home turf too.

Both teams still have to fly out to Canada to face league leaders Toronto Wolfpack in the Super Eights, with Haven in action there on September 2, and Crarey knows from their previous trip how recovering from that game will be key as well.

“We're in the top three and nobody can take that off us, so it's about us and Whitehaven keeping going,” said Crarey.

“We'll see how they get on against Toronto and then they've got York at the back end of that, so if they go there and lose then York put a full-strength team out, it could be interesting there. Then it's up to us on our game at home when we've got Keighley.

“They'll be up for that because we've all seen what happens after you play Toronto because of the effort you put in against them, plus the travel we have to do when we go over there.

“We've got to manage our squad in these last three games then we're straight into the play-offs. It took us a while to get over our last Toronto trip, so we've got to manage ourselves when we're over there, get plenty of rest and see if we can follow up with a massive play-off game.”