A new arrival could be on his way to Barrow Raiders this week, as head coach Paul Crarey prepares as his side to travel to Swinton Lions for a massive clash in the Betfred Championship.

The Raiders currently sit second-from-bottom in the table,and despite a hard-working display at the weekend against Leigh Centurions, they fell to a 24-8 defeat while relegation rivals Swinton and Batley both picked up a point each from their drawn games to move them further clear of the drop zone.

There is still some hope, though, as Widnes Vikings, who currently sit two places above them in the table crashed to a 40-10 defeat at Halifax while Dewsbury, who only hold a two-point gap over the Raiders, were also beaten on Friday night 28-22 against Sheffield

However, the Rams do have a game in hand, against bottom side Rochdale, which makes Sunday’s visit to Heywood Road even bigger.

Crarey was missing three key forwards with injuries for the game against Leigh last week there, Jono Smith, Dan Toal and Danny Morrow all missed out whilst Josh Johnson left for Salford last week.

To add to that, Willie Minoga is heading home to Papua New Guinea after suffering an injury early on in the season.

Crarey hopes that some players can return this weekend and also mentioned the possibility of a new signing to replace Johnson.

He said: “We’ve got a few injuries at the moment, we are just waiting on some bodies to come back in and hopefully be able to bring in a new signing on Thursday, if it goes through in which Catalan Dragons have helped us with.

“It gives us a new middle in which I think we were short with on Sunday.”

The relationship Crarey has with Catalans coach Steve McNamara goes back a long way.

Crarey said: “I coached a game against Steve, I coached Cumbria and he coached England and it was a draw and the relationship has just carried on from there.”

Crarey also reflected on his side’s defeat to Leigh last Sunday, saying: “I thought we were very good in the first half, we got points on the board but just didn’t take our chances.

“We weren’t clinical and we gave them one chance at the end of the half and they took it. We were a little unfortunate to have a try ruled out for a forward pass but we’ve got to move on from it. We were good but just little things are letting us down still.”

With fixtures not getting any easier towards the end of the season, a win at Swinton could give the Raiders the boost they need as they aim to continue competing in the Championship next year.