Barrow Raiders head coach Paul Crarey believes he’s brought a winner to the club in new signing Carl Forster, who will be looking to earn a second consecutive promotion to the Betfred Championship next season.

Forster was player-coach at Whitehaven when they just missed out on going up in 2017 after the Raiders defeated them in the League One play-off final.

The two clubs swapped divisions this year after Barrow’s almost season-long injury crisis played a big part in their relegation, while Haven had an inspired end to the campaign to win promotion after Forster returned to the Recreation Ground, after a brief spell in charge at Rochdale.

The 27-year-old has now moved down the coast to make travelling back home easier and will bolster Barrow’s front row for the 2020 season.

Crarey said: “He is very tough, he’s a winner as bloke - I know him personally from when we were coaching against each other in League One, when we went up and they just missed out.

“We had our dealings and we got on pretty well, so as soon as I phoned him we hit it off and he just said he was excited about the team we’ve got and the way we play and he wanted to come in.

“He said that travelling up to Whitehaven was tough and he sees the Barrow minibus, which has around nine players in it, coming up the road where everybody’s happy.

“It was an hour shorter than what he probably had to do, so for him it was a no-brainer and he gets on with me, so he didn’t really have to start again with another coach.

“I spoke to Steve [Neale] about it and with Tom [Walker] and Glenn [Riley] going, we wanted to bring him him.”

Strengthening the front row has been at the forefront of the Raiders’ recruitment so far, with Alec Susino leaving for Featherstone Rovers and Josh Johnson departing for Salford halfway through the season just finished.

When asked about what Forster will bring to his side, Crarey said: “He can play big minutes, he goes forward hard and he scores a lot of tries for a front-rower, which is very rare.

“We’ll probably make a signing this week that brings even more leadership to the team, but there is some good senior players at the club anyway - Jarrad Stack is a seasoned professional who’s been around the block.

“You’ve got Jordan Walne, who’s played at a high level, so we’ve got a lot of good blokes at the club.”

The Raiders will be represented at the first-ever World Cup Nines tournament in Sydney in a couple of weeks after centre Stargroth Amean was named in Papua New Guinea’s squad.