The way Barrow Raiders came through Jamie Dallimore’s sin-bin period typified the spirit they showed in their 21-8 victory against Halifax last Sunday, according to head coach Paul Crarey.

Given how Raiders’ season has gone, it would have been understandable if there were more than a few inside Craven Park fearing the worst after stand-off Dallimore was shown a yellow card for retaliation on Fax’s Simon Grix.

Being reduced to 12 men came not long after Barrow’s lead had been narrowed to 10-8 after Grix’s try, but the home side stood firm magnificently while a man light; something Crarey himself admits may not have happened in previous matches during the campaign.

Not only that, but they went on to pull clear again once Dallimore returned to the field to record easily their most impressive result of the season off the back of what was almost without question their best performance.

Crarey said: “Certain areas we worked on all week brought massive improvements and I think it’s down to very small margins.

“When they got to 10-8 and Dalli was sin-binned, he got an elbow off Grix and he reacted badly to it, but there was nothing to it when you looked at the video, there was no contact, really.

“I think Brandon Moore threw more punches than Dalli and at the time I didn’t really think it was a sin-binning, but we got a punishment for that.

“However, we defended manfully off the back of that, whereas before, at 10-8, we probably wouldn’t have had the belief to go on and win the game.

“Once we got through that period and got Dalli back on the field, I thought there was only going to be one winner and our desire at the end and when we put the ball up and Stargroth [Amean] pulled it out of the air and gave it to Danny Morrow, it was just am outstanding try to seal the game.

“Jake [Carter] then popped his drop goal over so we were three scores in front and then that was it.”