Head coach Paul Crarey believes he is showing why Barrow Raiders were right to keep their faith in him during their toils during the Betfred Championship season.

The Raiders finally ended their wait for a victory in their last run-out, as they hammered bottom club Rochdale Hornets 54-10 at Craven Park just over a week ago to stay in touch with the teams just above them in the table.

That followed an encouraging performance in the 30-18 defeat against Sheffield Eagles this previous week, meaning Barrow go into tomorrow night’s 1895 Cup tie against Bradford Bulls with some of their self-belief restored.

With a ten-game losing streak preceding the match against Rochdale, the board at the Raiders could have easily pressed the panic button and gone down the route of the Hornets in making a change in a bid to stave off relegation.

Crarey said: “I am feeling a bit vindicated by the last two weeks. We’ve come in for a bit of flak on social media from our own fans, which sometimes I find a bit bizarre because they know where we’re at, in terms of the injury situation that we’ve had.

“You only have to look at Rochdale - they got rid of Carl Foster and I know Matt Calland is a good guy and a good coach, but have things improved?

“Probably the dual-reg players have kept them where they are, being competitive. When they lose those dual-reg players, even though they had [Jack] Johnson from Warrington last week, they’re not the same animal.

“It’s the same at Swinton, with the Wigan players they have. If you take them away, they’re probably down near the very bottom.

“In the next few years, that’s going to tell because I hope and pray that they get rid of dual-reg and bring back the reserve grades.”

Barrow will be up against a much-changed Bradford side, with the Bulls only having a three-day turnaround for the match at Craven Park after their Challenge Cup quarter final defeat against Halifax last Sunday.

With absentees such as Danny Morrow, Luke Cresswell and Declan Hulme set to make their comebacks from injury in the weeks ahead, the situation is finally looking more positive for Crarey.

“If it wasn’t for the injuries, we wouldn’t have lost as many games,” Crarey said.

“It’s just been horrendous, the injury list, and any team that loses players - you watch Super League teams that lose players and they go on four/five game losing runs.

“We’ve got the monkey off our back now and nobody can talk about how we’ve lost ten games straight.”