Barrow Raiders head coach Paul Crarey insists his players aren’t getting downhearted despite all the near-misses suffered during what has been a frustrating season.

With five matches of the Betfred Championship season remaining, it’s make-or-break for the Raiders, who are three points adrift of third-from-bottom Widnes Vikings ahead of Sunday’s visit of York City Knights.

The 1895 Cup semi-finals taking place last weekend was a reminder of how close Barrow came themselves to reaching the last four, as they were defeated by a point thanks to a late drop goal against Leigh Centurions.

Meanwhile, they’ve had to deal with the disappointments of having tries wrongly ruled out against Leigh and Swinton, at times in which both games were in the balance, in recent weeks.

Crarey said: “I’m taking my hat off to these guys, who are putting their bodies on the line through all the criticism, which I think is unjust.

“If you look at the sides above us, Widnes are one win and a draw above us, Batley are two wins, and it’s very difficult to win when you’re a part-time team with not as big a budget as the full-time teams.

“These lads have never given up all year and they took Leigh all the way in our cup tie. You look at the Sheffield game and we lost that on the bell, through a decision that’s been changed now.

“We’ve had a couple of ‘tries’ where the decision didn’t go our way and at Swinton we had one one that would have taken us to 18-18 chalked off when it was a perfectly legitimate try. It’s gut-wrenching for our fellas.”

Crarey is hoping he’ll have a clearer idea as to who will be available to face York as the week progresses.

Half-backs Jamie Dallimore and Lewis Charnock will miss out due to injury and suspension, but the likes of Jono Smith, Jarrad Stack, Danny Morrow and Dan Toal are fighting to be fit.