PAUL Crarey expects Barrow Raiders to face a much different test this Sunday when they head to Leigh Centurions in the second game of the Betfred Championship Shield Super Eights.

Last Sunday's Super Eights opener at home to Rochdale Hornets saw the Raiders have to contend with a physical and disruptive approach from the division's bottom side before going on to secure a 17-10 win.

By contrast, the Centurions began the second phase of the season with a 68-6 thrashing of Sheffield Eagles at the Leigh Sports Village, having missed out on a place in the Qualifiers by just one point.

That was despite Leigh losing a number of players after failing to earn a shot at promotion back to Super League and Raiders head coach Crarey knows the full-timers necessitate changing from the direct approach employed with success against Rochdale.

"It just shows how much we showed character and playing teams at the bottom end of this division to the top is totally different," said Crarey. "At the top, it's power, pace and guile.

"At this end, it's more like League One; it's physical and, for both sides, you had people lying in the rucks, the 10s were short and it became a little bit ugly to watch, but a bit enthralling as well.

"We knew we'd get our time, we had to be patient and we probably over-structured what we did in the first half 20 metres off their goal-line instead of running hard between the two points.

"We asked them to go back to that in the second half and the try that broke the camel's back was hard runner, hard runner, try. Sometimes structure isn't the answer, it's push and support play."

Even though they did not make the top four, Leigh still finished 19 points ahead of Barrow at the end of the regular season and 16 clear of the side below them in the standings, Batley Bulldogs.

To further underline the difference between the top and bottom of the Championship, London Broncos went on to edge out Widnes Vikings 21-20 in the first game of the Qualifiers just under two weeks after running up 72 points away to the Raiders.

Admittedly, that result came with the hosts being decimated by injury and with several players lining up out of position, although it did mean Barrow ended the first phase with a run of seven straight losses

And Crarey was delighted to see the team rebound to open up a seven-point gap on relegation-threatened Rochdale after admitting it had been playing on his mind in the build-up to last Sunday.

"I thought about the Rochdale game for two weeks and how we would react to seven straight losses, and picking them up again after playing the full-time teams that are going to decimate you through injuries," said Crarey

"You only have to see how well London played against Widnes to show what we were up against as a team and then we've got to change our style to playing a more physical and destructive team.

"We got it right in the second half, but it was always going to be a difficult first 40 minutes because they were desperate.

"You could see that because they were taking the two points and lying in the ruck when we had good ball – and I don't blame them for doing that because you do what you've got to do get the job done, but I think our bit of quality in the second half paid dividends."