BARROW Raiders won a big victory in the Betfred championship after a hard-fought battle against Dewsbury Rams.

The side saw their captain Jarrad Stack scored twice in the 20-18 match, and despite losing three players early, on the squad continued to fight on.

Anton Laria was sent off after three minutes but the side remained determined to push on.

The Raiders still hit the front early on as half-back, Jarrod Sammut marked his return from international duty with a converted try after eight minutes.

Stack built on their early lead 20 minutes into the first half, before Rams replied with points from centre Adam Ryder.

Luke Cresswell stepped up to put the Raiders on a 10-point led before half-time.

After a difficult start the second half saw the hosts wake up and retaliate and claim the lead thanks to converted tries from Jordan Schofield and Ryder.

Barrow Raiders regrouped and went back into action and Stack claimed his second try to make it a 20-18 victory at the Yorkshire group.

Paul Crarey praised his squad for their performance and sees the game as a sign of things to come.

He said: “We lost two players after the first seven minutes.

“We were down to 12 men and we had to battle hard.

“I can’t praise this group of lads enough for sticking to it under a lot of adversary.

“We lost Danny Morrow with a head injury, and Carter is on one leg with a damaged foot. We don’t know if it’s a broken foot so we will have to see about that.

“The efforts in our defence were unbelievable. We knew we were going to be under pressure they are a big side.

“They had a mountain of possession. But we had some big players playing both offensively and defensively to get the win.

“This is a difficult place to come down to. It’s a small place to play but they are a massive side.

“They had seven sets of play against us back-to-back on our line in the second half and we were able to defend it.

“I can’t praise the lads enough. We haven’t had a break like other teams. We played in the challenge cup and in the semi-finals. We came out the other end battered and bruised but we got a chance of character on this side.

“Another thing I’d like to do is thank our away fans who were absolutely magnificent and cheered us on to victory.

“We’ll need that in the future when we get back onto the field.

“I think today we more or less secured our place in the championship, just before we got to the halfway stage.

“I’m so proud of the group of players, and the club for what we’ve achieved over this period of time.”