Head coach Paul Crarey was delighted with how Barrow Raiders responded to being dominated in the early stages of their 22-18 friendly defeat against Oldham.

The Raiders barely got a touch of the ball in the first 20 minutes at Craven Park, during which time the Roughyeds slipped through tackles to score three tries and open up a 16-0 lead in what was an ominous opening.

However, Barrow, who were still shorn of several key players, including Stargroth Amean, Wartovo Puara and Danny Morrow, deserve an immense amount of credit for how they stood up to the challenge for the rest of the game.

They and Oldham have swapped divisions since they previously met, but there were a lot more positives for Crarey to take from this opening pre-season friendly than there were from last year’s equivalent.

“I thought the amateur kids were outstanding at times,” Crarey said. “We were looking down the barrel - we’d had no ball and I think after seven sets we were at 33 per cent [completion].

“We were knocking the ball on or losing it on play one and we were under a bit of pressure. They scored some soft tries, I thought. We gave Danny Abram a bit of space and he burned us, but once we found out feet and got some possession, we put some good stuff together.

“We were very unlucky not to win it Jake [Carter] - I thought he should have scored in that position there, where he just had to go for the line, but he’s rolled out and tried to put the ball down. I think if he’d have slid over we’d have won the game, but I was very pleased.

“We had seven amateurs in our line-up and at times we left them all on in one block and we survived the pressure that they put us under.”