PAUL Crarey wants Barrow Raiders to focus on getting the basics right as they bid to ensure their place in the Betfred Championship for next season.

The Raiders head coach was frustrated by his side coming up with 16 individual errors in last Sunday’s 36-16 defeat at home to Batley Bulldogs and knows they cannot afford a repeat of that when they head to Dewsbury Rams this weekend.

Barrow could only manage a 50 per cent completion rate too and while Crarey cited injuries as a contributory factor, he is eager to ensure his players do not allow bad habits to become embedded.

“We keep speaking about the same things every week,” said Crarey. “Completions, discipline with the ball, support and we’re just lacking in those things.

“We’re so busted its unbelievable and we’re moving people around.

“It’s difficult when you get people going down all over the place and if people are out of form, we can’t change things because there is no-one around to bring in and give them a kick up the backside.

“We’ve got to keep everything real positive, even when we know we’re lacking in certain areas, and that’s hard to take as coaching staff. But we’ll fight hard and try to get the elusive one win.”

Crarey could at least be positive about the tries his side scored against Batley, with Matty Holmes’ score in the closing stages in particular pleasing him.

However, those moments proved few and far between in the game and Crarey was encouraged to hear his players taking responsibility in the changing room post-match.

“Martin Aspinwall said at the end we’re not going to win anything with 50 per cent completion rates, we’ve got to have some discipline across the board and it’s only us can fix it up,” said Crarey.

“I asked if there’s anything I’ve been doing over the past week and they said ‘no, it’s us’, and we look at ourselves and what we’re doing - and when we put shape on it’s pretty good.

“Little things we are doing are working, but they’re sporadic and we’re not putting enough pressure on defensively or kicking.”

Batley, by contrast, were able to play in a more free-flowing manner with fewer errors - helped, no doubt, by being clear of the relegation battle.

And Crarey hopes the Raiders can learn from the approach the Bulldogs employed.

“The pressure is off those teams now,” said Crarey. “You could see with Batley, they were free-flowing and there’s no way they’re going to go down.

“Whereas we forced the ball and tried to score off every play instead of building pressure, and we’ve got to learn from that.”