MIKE Grady is happy for North Wales Crusaders to be going into today's League One Cup final with few giving them much chance of beating Barrow Raiders (kick-off 12pm).

The Wrexham-based side may have racked up a half-century of points in last week's league victory over London Skolars, along with eliminating the likes of York City Knights and Newcastle Thunder en route to the cup final, but go into today's clash at Bloomfield Road as 6/1 underdogs.

Barrow, on the other hand, are huge odds-on favourites to lift the trophy, yet North Wales head coach Grady wants his squad to embrace the fact they are going into the clash with no expectations on them.

“Barrow are going in to the game as favourites and I guess my team talk is done for me because everyone expects them to win,” said Grady.

“It’ll be a hard game but they’re beatable, everyone is on the day. There’s no pressure on us because everyone is expecting Barrow to do their job and hopefully that will filter down to the players.

“They’ll want to put their loss against Toronto right and bounce back so it’ll be tough, but there’s no favourites in a final so I’m looking forward to it.”

The Crusaders have been inconsistent in Kingstone Press League One this year – currently sitting 13th with three wins from eight matches – and Grady, who took over from ex-Raiders player and coach Anthony Murray last October, is delighted to see his team return to the final of the competition they won two years ago.

“Considering where we were at the start of the year, it’s fantastic to be in a final,” said Grady. “I don’t think we expected to be there, but we’re all made up that we can take the fans to Blackpool.

“They’re a fantastic bunch that travel with us wherever we go and they’ll enjoy the day whatever the outcome.”

Meanwhile, Barrow head coach Paul Crarey is delighted to see his team's success so far this season helping inspire a new generation of fans in the town.

Heavy back-to-back losses to Leeds Rhinos in the Challenge Cup and Toronto Wolfpack in the league have done nothing to dampen the spirits ahead of today's game and Crarey hopes to see something more akin to their 64-14 semi-final win over Oxford.

“A little kid came up to me at the game and said, ‘Hey Crarey, I want to play for your team’,” recalled Crarey. “He didn’t have a Super League shirt on he had a Barrow shirt on.

“It’s a massive milestone for us that the sport is growing here and the team deserve a little bit of success for the following we’re starting to get and the work we’re putting in.

“It’s something we set out our stall to do; we want to win as a group and as a goal at the start of the season we wanted to take the fans to Blackpool.”