IT happens all the time. You win a game against the odds, you attract interest and get a decent home crowd of 1,514 – and you get beaten, writes Raiders Review columnist Tony Colyer.

It was close and it went to the wire with Sheffield stealing victory 24-22 with the last action of the game with a controversial penalty taken 10 meters closer to the sticks than where the infringement took place.

How the referee could allow that to happen is disappointing and the RFL need to review the incident. A draw would have probably been a fair result.

There was a high penalty count again, which is beginning to wear a little bit thin on the supporters. The stop-start nature of the games is not a great watch and although referees at Championship level appear to give penalties for fun, all teams have a responsibility to improve their discipline.

I hate mentioning it every week. Post-match, the coach and the players all recognise that discipline is poor, but nothing seems to change, and this has cost Barrow valuable possession in every game.

I was very surprised by the go-forward of the Eagles; their forwards were a real handful, in particular Joel Farrell and James Glover, and winger Ben Blackmore took the ball up time and time again.

So, Sheffield are looking good, but what about Barrow?

After the first few games of the season including the friendlies, I think we are doing okay, but I don’t think we have yet reached the performance level displayed early last season when we drew with Toronto and beat Leigh.

We need to go up a gear and play with more intensity as this year the Championship is the most competitive ever. We must take points from teams expected to be in the same part of table.

Tomorrow it’s the trip to Bootham Crescent to play James Ford’s newly-promoted York City Knights, who have not beaten the Raiders for 12 years.

Last week the Knights staged a dramatic fightback from 16-0 to claim victory at Dewsbury with a last minute try and conversion to win 26-22. Dewsbury is a difficult place to go, so that has made everyone sit up and take notice.

In 2016, York were on the verge of folding, but their recent success is down to the commitment of chairman Jon Flatman and coach Ford, and in July they hope to be playing on the new stadium with the official home opener against Bradford Bulls.

Once complete the new Community Stadium Leisure Complex will include an 8,000 all-seat sports stadium to host professional football and rugby league. There will also be new leisure facilities incorporating a swimming pool, gym, dance studio, indoor and outdoor climbing facilities and a sports hall with spectator seating. It has taken over 10 years to get to this point and has cost over £40million.

Workington are building a community facility too and I have said it many times before there needs to be some real discussion in our town for a similar project. There are plenty of options, but who’s going to start the conversation?