PAUL Crarey has confessed that his side were soundly beaten by the better team as they fell to a 40-18 defeat to Halifax Panthers on Sunday.

It is now back-to-back Betfred Championship defeats for the Raiders, who, after three successive away trips to Yorkshire, faced a difficult challenge at the Shay against in-form Halifax Panthers.

Compounding the result, the Raiders suffered a number of injuries with half-back Jarrod Sammut needing to be stretchered off of the pitch in the first-half, before finishing the game without Ellis Gillam (calf) and Danny Langtree (bicep).

Tee Ritson was back on the scoresheet for his 12th try in all competitions, as well as captain Jarrad Stack, hooker Josh Wood and full-back Luke Cresswell, but it would not be enough as the home side deservedly took all two points.

Speaking post-match, Crarey admitted that Halifax were too strong for his battered and bruised side.

“Halifax were on fire today. We went set for set for seventeen minutes, then we make an error and they score from a missed tackle,” he said.

“We gave a penalty away on the next set and they score off of that. We then competed and got ourselves back in the game.

“Thirty seconds before half-time, instead of getting a kick away on the left edge, we passed the ball to the winger and it ended up in touch and then [Halifax] score off of that play, and then we go into half-time with a twelve score deficit.

“In the second half we had no subs. Sam Eseh was sat on the bench on his own. Ellis Gillam suffered a calf strain, Danny Langtree – bicep [injury], and Jarrod Sammut just before half-time with what looked like a bad injury.”

Despite all of the issues his team endured, Crarey believed his team dug in and competed well.