PAUL Crarey praised Ryan Fieldhouse for rising to the challenge posed by hot prospect Luke Cresswell after his four-try haul against Rochdale Mayfield in yesterday’s Challenge Cup win.

“We put him out to the wing and gave Luke a bit of a run there, and I thought with Cressy hitting some type of form, Ryan has really risen to the challenge.

“They’re two great kids and I thought Ryan showed what he is really capable of when he opens up, and it’s probably all about confidence with him.”

However, Crarey was not concerned by the close-fought nature of the first 40 minutes, where Barrow had to battle both a strong wind and some typically stubborn and robust defence from the National Conference League Premier Division outfit.

“It was slow, but it was always going to be,” said Crarey. “We were playing into a howling gale and they kicked off, but we were just solid, really.

“We wanted to be solid and not concede any points in the first half, and rely on field position, which was really hard to get.

“But we managed to do that and we said at half time, if we can hold field position in the first half then the second half it’s our time and it really was.

“To win 60-6 is a real achievement in these conditions, and people will say what about the first half, but it’s about what you do in the 80 minutes.

“What we did in the first half laid the platform and it might have been slow, but it was clinical and we more or less squeezed the life out of them, and then they had nothing left.”

Crarey will be keeping a close watch on tomorrow night’s fourth round draw, which is being made in Plymouth on board the Royal Navy’s Barrow-built assault ship, HMS Bulwark.

Whether that proves to be any sort of omen remains to be seen, but Crarey is hopeful the Raiders will be able to get a home tie against the likes of Kingstone Press Championship sides Bradford Bulls or Hull Kingston Rovers.

“We’d like a big club here or a home draw against a League One club, if that’s the case, so we can eventually get a big draw,” said Crarey. “We need bodies in here to keep what we’re doing going.

“We know how tight things are financially and we want to keep doing it for the fans, who were brilliant - the amount of people who turned up to watch an amateur game and got right behind us.

“They were probably a bit frustrated in the first half, but what we did there laid the platform for what we did in the second.”

Fieldhouse was named in his usual berth at full-back with former Barrow Island amateur Cresswell on the wing for the tie – as had been the case in the League One Cup the previous week – with the pair swapping positions in the second half.

And with Cresswell putting in some impressive performances in the number one shirt during pre-season, head coach Crarey was delighted to see the ex-Halifax and Dewsbury Rams man showing he is not prepared to relinquish his hold on that role.

“Across the board, I thought Ryan was really good at full-back,” said Crarey.

“He knows how good Luke is going to be and they’re really helping each other along.

Fieldhouse had opened the scoring for Barrow after just eight minutes and then grabbed three more tries after the break when the home side really turned on the style to secure a 60-6 win, having led by just eight points at half time.