I WAS wondering why I didn’t feel euphoric after Raiders victory at Newcastle last Saturday.

I was contemplating visiting a shrink to understand why I was feeling relief rather than overriding delight, and then the The Mail came to my rescue and put my confused mind at rest with an article about a book, Scorecasting by Tobias J Moskowitz and John L Wertheim, who devoted a chapter to the phenomenon of loss aversion and how it affects perceptions regarding the results of matches.

The theory goes if a team surrenders a comfortable lead and ends up taking a narrow win, fans feelings afterwards will be more of relief rather than overriding delight due to the fear of what was almost lost.

Well that was definitely me, and in the last 20 minutes I almost spilled the claret a couple of times as Newcastle came back from the dead at 30-6 to 30-28 with five minutes left, but we were able to see out the storm.

After watching Barrow for more than 50 years, nothing surprises me anymore – Barrow never do easy! After a couple of hours of reflection, I was grateful of the victory, but I was also concerned that we couldn’t capitulate in that manner in the next four crucial matches against much better opposition, and did we have the necessary promotion mind-set?

I’m sure we have, and as I have said on many occasions, Paul Crarey and his coaching and playing staff should be congratulated for all the hard graft over the last three years in assembling a squad capable of promotion. Results to date demonstrate that, with only a couple of league defeats this season away to Toronto Wolfpack and Whitehaven.

The players have a tremendous responsibility in this last push for promotion, and the Newcastle result indicates that game management has to improve considerably to achieve success.

That starts tomorrow with the visit of York City Knights to Craven Park.

After almost going out of business, they have surprised everyone this season, and coach James Ford has assembled a pretty formidable squad with loans and dual-registrations, which include the ex-Warrington forward Jordan Cox, Hull FC prop Ross Osborne and former Barrow favourite Andy Ellis, who have been key to their resurgence.

They are the only team to inflict a league defeat on the Toronto superstars, they were narrowly beaten at Cougar Park by the improving Keighley, and then last week overcame a stiff challenge from Workington Town in front of an encouraging 1,112 spectators to maintain fourth place.

This will probably be our toughest home game, and possession and discipline will be key. Missing from the York line-up will be star full-back Ash Robson, who unsuccessfully appealed against a six-match ban after he was found guilty of spitting at Whitehaven centre Chris Taylor in an incident on June 18. The game is tough enough without that nonsense.

Elsewhere, is the pressure getting to the Toronto superstars?

Last weekend Keighley Cougars staged a second-half fightback to hold big-spending Wolfpack to a 26-26 draw. Trailing 22-12 at half-time, Keighley roared back to share the spoils, with half-back Matty Beharrell earning the deserved point with the last kick.

Doncaster gained a 30-22 win over Whitehaven, which puts us two points ahead of our nearest rivals and firmly in the driving seat.

There are no games next week due to the Challenge Cup final, but the week after we host Workington Town and Whitehaven travel to Canada. We go to Canada the following week, and by then we should have a clear picture of what we need to do in the last two games to stay second.

Tomorrow is a very important game and should be a cracker. See you there.