THE array of Teletubbies, Mexican banditos and jockeys dotted around the terraces at Craven Park gave something of an end-of-season feel to yesterday’s Kingstone Press League One encounter between Barrow Raiders and Keighley Cougars.

Supporters donning is a long-standing tradition for the final home game of the campaign at various sports clubs up and down the country, but this era of Super Eights and play-off rugby league – ‘every minute matters’, as the RFL like to constantly remind us – means, for the Raiders at least, the season is far from over.

For starters, the hard-fought 26-18 win over Keighley made certain of a top-three finish in League One for Paul Crarey’s side and they head into this week’s final Super Eights game away to undefeated table-toppers Toulouse Olympique knowing they will be guaranteed at least one home game come the play-offs.

That is, of course, if they do not finish second and then beat Toulouse in the promotion clash – and Rochdale Hornets’ 38-22 comeback win at Doncaster yesterday means that is far from a certainty either. So anyone dreaming of a promotion party in the South of France might have to hold those thoughts for now, while anyone trying to figure out the various permutations from all conceivable results on the final weekend of the Super Eights might want to just to go for a lie down instead.

Whatever happens, head coach Crarey and his squad will be confident they snatch one of the two promotion places up for grabs, particularly as they have now stretched their winning run to nine games.

But while there were occasions when Barrow showed how potent they can be in attack – the tries from the returning Liam Harrison and Ryan Fieldhouse in particular coming from great play to open up the Keighley defence – they also showed they are not afraid to front up physically should the situation arise.

Indeed, there was more than one occasion when tempers became frayed between both teams and one of the club’s guests of honour for the day, former Barrow full-back Steve Tickle, may well have been reminded of his playing days of the 1970s and 1980s when the game was a somewhat more lawless place.

Perhaps though, that was just a sign of how intensely the Raiders were defending at times – no more so than the opening minutes when a repeat set of six and a penalty saw Keighley exerting pressure on the home line.

The defence which laid the foundation for this win came to the fore then though and it was a superb one-on-one ball steal by Chris Hankinson on Ritchie Hawkyard which set up a counter-attack, with the stand-off sending flying winger Eze Harper streaking away to score from over 75 metres out after just three minutes.

Hankinson’s half-back partner Jamie Dallimore was key for the home side in attack too, pulling the strings with the ball in hand and keeping the Cougars defence on their toes with some intelligent kicking.

The introduction of Nathan Mossop from the interchange bench added an extra dimension to the attack and his dummy-half scoot set in motion the move which led to Dallimore sending over the rampaging Harrison for a try on 21 minutes.

More excellent support play, this time from full-back Fieldhouse, saw another Dallimore pass unlock the Keighley defence ten minutes before half time, and the conversion from Hankinson put the home side 18 points clear at half time.

Keighley had not been without their chances before the break, although strong defence and some unforced handling errors proved their undoing, and a long spell of pressure eventually paid off eight mintues into the second half when Hawkyard scampered through for a converted score.

Barrow managed to regain possession from the restart though and Hankinson’s penalty from in front of the posts put them three scores clear again. However, by now the game was starting to become somewhat disjointed.

Anthony Bate was able to put the seal on the win with a try 13 minutes from time – coming after the Raiders had recovered a misplaced pass and worked the ball along the line – and although two defensive lapses allowed Will Milner and James Feather to grab two late tries for Keighley, Barrow had already done enough to inch closer towards that goal of promotion.

Barrow Raiders: Ryan Fieldhouse; Eze Harper, Cameron Pitman, Max Wiper, Chris Fleming; Chris Hankinson, Jamie Dallimore; Joe Bullock, Karl Ashall, Oliver Wilkes, Liam Harrison, Andy Litherland, Martin Aspinwall. Interchange: Nathan Mossop, Andrew Dawson, Brad Brennan, Anthony Bate. Keighley Cougars: Ritchie Hawkyard; Andy Gabriel, Danny Lawton, Rikki Sheriffe, Paul White; Adam Brook, Will Milner; Brendon Rawlins, James Feather, Matthew Bailey, Josh Lynam, Charlie Martin, Ash Lindsay. Interchange: Aaron Ollet, John Oakes, Jode Sheriffe, Ross Peltier.