Barrow Raiders head coach Paul Crarey has praised the work of his forwards in his side's narrow loss against Featherstone Rovers last Saturday.

The Raiders were heroic in defeat at Post Office Road, where they went toe-to-toe with the Betfred Championship promotion hopefuls and came so close to pulling off an upset when Jordan Walne's try put them 16-12 ahead in the closing stages.

It ultimately wasn't to be for Crarey's boys as Gareth Gale's converted try broke their hearts, but they can take great heart from their display going into Sunday's League One opener at Doncaster.

It was also a day to remember for teenage prop Connor Terrill, who scored a try in what was his senior debut for Barrow, having come through the ranks at Millom and with Furness Raiders.

Crarey said: "We just told Connor to run hard because he's got toe on him and he's got a nice ball off Danny Toal, who's been immense in these last few games.

"I think Jordan Walne for 80 minutes was outstanding, Ryan Duffy gave us massive, massive minutes, he carried the ball strong and he made a 30 or 40-metre break and we didn't capitalise off that. There were a couple of things that we weren't happy with - I think Perry [Singleton] on that left side took a little dig at one of their players and it cost us ten minutes and a penalty against us at the back end of a set.

"But they've got to learn and I've said 'I don't mind you doing that as long as you learn and don't do it again.'

"There were a couple of little things in the first half that were a little bit reckless when we had them on the rack with field position and we were just flying in where we needed composure."

A lack of discipline proved to be costly for Barrow, who conceded 14 penalties during the course of the game, with eight of those coming in the second half alone.

That led to them to losing Singleton and Declan Hulme to the sin bin, which nullified the advantage given to them by James Lockwood's sending-off for kicking out at Dan Toal in the first half.

Crarey said: "I think what happens when you're away from home and they're down to 12 men is that they were going to try and disrupt us and what you've got to do is settle down and complete your sets.

"The one Perry did on that left edge where the ball had gone, there was a little bit of a bite on him and he bit back hard by giving him a bit of a whack and he ends up in the bin.

"We gave a penalty away from a decision we didn't like when we had them on the rack and the ref marched us ten metres, so two of those penalties there were a bit reckless."