After the heroics at Featherstone and Leigh, the question was always going to be how much it had taken out of Barrow Raiders and unfortunately the answer unfolded within the first ten minutes when we conceded two tries to a classy powerful Toulouse Olympique.

It was very windy last Sunday and I assume we lost the toss as we played with the wind in the first half towards the ‘Hindpool End,’ which is our traditional second half choice.

As a result, we didn’t get the chance to utilise the wind with deep kicks and keep Toulouse penned in their own half as they had nearly all the possession, scoring five tries to one and going in at the interval 24-6.

The only highlight for Barrow was the try of the match and ‘champagne moment’ when Tee Ritson collected a kick through behind the sticks and found enough space to set up Luke Cresswell to race away on the wing with 75 metres to the try line.

That made it 8-6 on 24 minutes and I thought we had a chance, but the Frenchmen went up a gear and half-backs Jonathon Ford and Stan Robin ran the show.

On their day, Toulouse are a match for anyone and they achieved this 36-6 victory without the 2018 Championship player of the year in full back Mark Kheirallah and excellent forward Rhys Curran. At the end of the game I thought: 'How did Swinton beat them in France?'

However, we must move on and with eight games to go we must now focus on Championship survival. We have four home games left (Leigh, Bradford, York and Batley) and four away ( Swinton, Sheffield, Toronto and Dewsbury tomorrow).

Dewsbury Rams is the most important game of the season and victory will take us out of the bottom two. Dewsbury have a game in hand, which is against bottom club Rochdale Hornets and, based on current form, should pick up two points there.

The other seven games after Barrow are Halifax, Featherstone, Bradford and Widnes at home and Sheffield, Batley and Toulouse away, so no easy games there.

Our other target Swinton beat Rochdale last Sunday to go three points clear of Barrow, but we play them away in a fortnight, which is another must win game.

Apart from that game, Swinton have Batley (tomorrow), Halifax and Sheffield at home and Bradford, Leigh, Featherstone and Widnes away. Again, no easy games.

Widnes are not out of the relegation struggle, either, and they play Rochdale at home on Sunday and then have Toronto, Toulouse and Swinton at home and Halifax, Sheffield, Leigh and Dewsbury away. But Dewsbury are our immediate target and our mindset must be that if we can beat Featherstone away 38-16, we can beat the Rams.