IT was a good end to the season at Craven Park against relegation threatened Swinton Lions with a hard-fought 34-18 victory, writes Tony Colyer.

The importance of the game to Barrow had diminished somewhat following the restructure announcement last Friday, but it didn’t appear to diminish the performance of the Raiders against a lively Swinton outfit who were leading at the interval.

Victory brought about the end of the 11-match losing streak and leapfrogged us over tomorrow’s rivals Sheffield Eagles, who were soundly beaten 44-4 at Batley Bulldogs.

Head coach Mark Aston was once again scathing of his players, so hopefully Barrow can take advantage of those sentiments and secure a first away win of the season.

This will be the fifth time the two clubs have met this season and it stands two victories apiece. Tomorrow is a ‘no pressure’ game and, if Cory Aston is checked, I’m sure we can achieve the first win on the road.

In League One, the promotion battle is poised for an exciting finale. Whitehaven are away to York City Knights and must win to achieve a play-off spot.

In contrast, York must win to become champions and gain automatic promotion. Any slip up will let their nearest rivals Bradford Bulls gain automatic promotion as they play host to Hemel Stags.

It will be Haven player-coach Carl Forster’s swansong as he moves on next season and he is aiming for a successful end to his spell at the Recreation Ground.

Workington Town travel to Doncaster already assured of a play-off place and a semi-final away to the same opponent next week.

Town are well capable of promotion and, if successful against Doncaster, they will probably have to go to Odsal to play Bradford, who they beat recently.

Following the league restructure the winners of that game get promoted and the losers go to the bottom Championship club.

From what I have seen, Town can beat either Swinton Lions or Rochdale Hornets so it’s going to be an exciting finale. It would be good from Barrow’s perspective to play Workington next season, with the rivalry between the two clubs and the increased revenue.

What has made this possible is the restructure agreement made last Friday. The timing wasn’t great, but the changes would probably have been made sooner if Robert Elstone and Ralph Rimmer had been appointed earlier.

Personally, I think the changes are good for the game. Too much jeopardy in Super League was destabilising clubs and one up, one down is sensible.

I still think Super League can grow to 14 teams and increasing the Championship to 16 teams is also possible, with applications from New York City, Dublin, Red Star Belgrade and Villeneuve in the pipeline.