BARROW Raiders head coach Paul Crarey has admitted it was a ‘relief’ to see his League 1 table-toppers pick up a tenth league win of the season against Hunslet on Sunday after a challenging few weeks.

Raiders were hit by a Coronavirus outbreak recently, which saw their Cumbrian derby against Workington Town on August 1 postponed, and Crarey has now revealed he did not know until the day before who would be available for Hunslet’s visit to Craven Park.

However, Crarey’s concerns were eased as a ‘fantastic’ Raiders defeated Alan Kilshaw’s men by 40 points to 10, in front of just under 2000 supporters at their home ground.

Crarey said: “I just thought we were solid right the way through - everybody stepped up.

“Charlie Emslie and Connor Terrill showed great maturity, Carl McBain had a good stint.

“It was a fantastic performance – a bit like Doncaster when we won with 12 men – this was up there with the effort.

“It was a relief – we didn’t know if the game would go ahead on Saturday and we were waiting for players to be released and we hadn’t been training.

“It was a case of doing as much as we could do in a short space of time.

“You have got to credit Andy Gaffney – he worked his socks off in the build up to get Jake Emmitt in and get all the paperwork done with Sean Riley to clear the lads.”

Crarey also praised Hakim Miloudi, with the former Toronto Wolfpack centre quickly becoming a fans’ favourite at Craven Park, and Tee Ritson, who bagged four tries during another man of the match performance.

There is a positive atmosphere in the Raiders camp now - Crarey says, which he hopes will carry them to another win next weekend at North Wales Crusaders.

He said: "We are now concentrating on what will be a difficult game at North Wales.

"They are fourth now after a good result at the weekend. They have got a good spine there, some big middles."

A win in Wrexham would move Barrow's win percentage onto 88.5, with 13 games played.

There is still some doubt however whether the postponed Cumbrian derby will go ahead this season, but Crarey is keen to see the 'title decider' staged, whether it be during midweek or at the end of the season.

He added: "It is going to decide the title – it is only fair that it is played.

"Workington have got a backlog – we will have to see if they can get those games in first before playing us.

"I am happy if they extend the league to play all the games, you get true champions then."