MY job continues to be the most varied job imaginable.

I thought managing a rugby club would be a relatively straight-forward task of bringing in enough income to put a decent team on the field and then repeat.

What the club faced last weekend with Storm Eunice causing thousands of pounds worth of damage certainly wasn’t part of the job specification.

I have seen some criticism about why our marquee that was lost in the storm wasn’t dismantled but I’m not sure these people understood the scale of what we had erected.

The marquee was a solid structure concreted into the foundations. It had survived storms in November without a hint of it being unsafe, but this freak weather event was the worst storm in decades.

Obviously with the benefit of hindsight we would have done things differently. We now need to consider a more permanent solution for the long term but also additional precautions whether that be more heavy duty strapping or permanent wind breaks for any short-term measures.

It is fair to say that much of our business plan was put together with additional income generated from our bars and events.

Even losing a couple of weeks with cancellation of our booked parties is already starting to cause financial distress.

Much of our business model involved almost limping through the winter months before we hoped for increased attendances at our matches and for our events programme to kick off.

The Mail: DAMAGE: Storm impact on RaidersDAMAGE: Storm impact on Raiders

We meet with our insurer later this week, but we must act relatively swiftly to help restore those income streams.

We will be forever grateful for the volunteer help we received in the clearing of the debris in the aftermath of all the damage and that extends to all those who have contributed to the GoFundMe page that will be a massive help to get us back on our feet.

We aren’t just a professional rugby club we are a long-standing institution within the town and whenever Barrow is mentioned in despatches then people think Submarines and Rugby League.

The amount of work that we contribute to the community is outstanding and I would like to think that there are many friends out there who will ensure that we can survive this crisis.

If you can donate to the fund then it would be fantastic, but equally simply supporting our revenue streams would help us get back on our own two feet.

We are determined to have the venue ready for our Paddyfest event on Friday, March 18 and purchasing an online ticket now from our website would massively help with cashflow and you will also guarantee yourself a great day of entertainment.

There are so many other ways that you can pledge your support. Simply turning up to our games, hopefully with a home Challenge Cup tie in early March if we beat Rochdale on Sunday, supporting the Ladies versus St Helens on March 12, making Lincoln’s your takeaway of choice, buying your Challenge Cup Final tickets from the club, visiting our online shop for merchandise, pledging to attend and buy tickets for our summer programme of concerts or considering the purchase of some of our sponsorship packages.

We are determined to come back stronger, but the club is only as strong as their supporters. Thankfully we have some of the very best.