ALMOST a gold medal performance, but not quite.

Although a very good victory against a dangerous Hunslet team, Barrow couldn’t repeat the previous outstanding performances that they displayed against Rochdale, Doncaster and York.

But the expectation has been raised significantly in recent weeks and we are now slightly critical when we beat a very good side by 18 points.

So only a silver, I’m afraid, and anyway, we don’t want to the Raiders to get carried away and become complacent.

Having gone 20-0 up after 20 minutes, Barrow were magnificent in attack and Martin Aspinwall had his best game to date by far. He was unstoppable and was rewarded with two tries, one in each half.

Everyone played well, but there were some defensive lapses which gave Hunslet some hope and, to their credit, they didn’t give up scoring five tries and scoring 26 points.

Seven victories on the bounce now means that we can’t finish below fifth place and therefore have definitely qualified for a promotion game.

Two more victories from the last three games ensures third place and a home game in the first promotion match against fourth place, likely to be Doncaster or York.

We are only two points behind Rochdale now after their home defeat by York City Knights last weekend and today they travel to France to play Toulouse, where I can’t see them getting a result.

So Barrow’s overnight trip to the capital to play London Skolars takes on extra significance with a victory probably putting Barrow in second place with a superior points difference over Rochdale.

Barrow will be keen to avenge the 42-34 regular season defeat back in June when they were architects of their own downfall with a very indisciplined performance, conceding too many penalties which Skolars took full advantage of and kicked themselves to victory.

In fact coach Paul Crarey said it was the ‘scruffiest’ match he has ever been involved in.

The New River Stadium pitch is small and Crarey has warned his players – in particular, his pack – they will face a set of forwards who like to run the ball up the middle on the tight confines of their pitch.

So an effective disciplined game plan needs to be deployed which should ensure another welcome victory in our quest to escape this league, but there is a possible conundrum forming.

If we do finish second, that’s fantastic as we play the team that finishes top - likely to be Toulouse - away in the promotion match.

If we are unsuccessful in that match we get another bite of the cherry with a home game against the team that finishes fifth and then if we win that we play at home again against the winners of third versus fourth.

So home advantage all the way after that first game away if unsuccessful. The only problem is that if we do finish second we will have to travel to France two weeks on the trot, as we play Toulouse away in our last play-off game.

Do we really want to do that or is the chairman willing to pay for that South of France week long summer camp?

It could be a good investment because next year there is one salary cap system for all the leagues.

RFL Chief Executive Nigel Wood said this week “There is little point in putting expansion franchises in if you say that you can’t spend on players.

“That would be a conflict of strategies. Going forward, there will be one salary cap applicable to all clubs.”

You can spend up to £1.85million or 50 per cent of your turnover, whichever is the lower, and that counts for everyone - including Toronto, who have stated their ambition with the signings of James Laithwaite and Gary Wheeler from Warrington Wolves, and Craig Hall (Wakefield) and Liam Kay (Leigh).

Toronto head coach Paul Rowley was present at Craven Park last week - oh dear!