Barrow Raiders head coach Paul Crarey believes his policy of signing young backs is starting to bring more benefits after a shaky start to the campaign for some of them.

Moving Jake Spedding, who signed from St Helens during the off-season, to the wing appears to have worked, with him producing a strong performance under the high ball against Sheffield Eagles before being among the try scorers in the thumping of Rochdale.

Ex-Newcastle Thunder full back Tee Ritson is another whose form has picked up, with Barrow finally being able to be consistent in their selections after a horrendous time with injuries.

Crarey said: “They get a little bit of criticism, some of our outside backs, but when we played Toronto, Jake was up against [Ricky] Leutele and when we played at Bradford he was up against Jake Webster.

“They forget these fellas we brought in, like Tee Ritson, are probably unproven at this level. Deon Cross was playing for Rochdale last year and probably would have been in a relegated side if they hadn’t changed the rules.

“We’ve taken a gamble on these kids and Jake played reserve team games for St Helens, as well as a couple of first-team games, but he was also at Sheffield and played at wing and centre there.

“They’re young kids and that’s what we’ve gone for - we haven’t gone for the old pro, we’ve gone for the youth because that’s our budget.”