Head coach Paul Crarey has impressed on to his players they need to be hard to beat if they are to mount a push for promotion in Betfred League One this season.

After playing in two Coral Challenge Cup ties, the Raiders finally get their league campaign underway with what, on paper, looks like one of their toughest fixtures of it; Doncaster away.

They should head to the Keepmoat Stadium on Sunday in good heart, though, after they ran Championship promotion hopefuls Featherstone Rovers extremely close before eventually going down 18-16 last Saturday.

Nonetheless, with just 20 league games this season, there will be little margin for error for Barrow, who are expected to be run hard by the Dons, as well as Newcastle Thunder, in the months ahead.

Crarey said: “It will be difficult at Doncaster, they’ve spent a lot of money in getting Rangi Chase and they’ve got Watson Boas, who plays half-back for PNG, and [Jason] Tali in the centres is a big, big unit.

“If you give them the ball, they’ll punish you and they’re there to challenge at the top of the league, but so are we.

“We’ve got to learn every week and if we learn and turn up for each other, like we’ve done, then we’re hard to beat.

“To win anything or to get promoted from this division, you’ve got to be hard to beat. If you give penalties away - soft penalties - and make the wrong decisions then you become easier to beat, so that’s something we’ve got to learn as a group.

“But to go to Featherstone, who had been clear winners in every game in the Championship, and finish the stronger, play some great rugby and movement with the ball was outstanding.”

The Raiders will wait on the fitness of Dan Toal, who was involved in the incident that led to Featherstone’s James Lockwood being sent off during the first half at Post Office Road.

On the whole, however, they should have a relatively clean bill of health for Doncaster after coming through what was a bruising cup tie in Yorkshire.

Crarey said: “Their man got sent off because he kicked Danny clean in the stomach - he struggled to get his breath at half-time and we had to put him on oxygen.

“Danny is a tough customer and I asked him if he wanted to change, which would have burned our sub, and he said ‘leave me out there for five or six minutes and I’ll let you know if I can handle it,’ and then he came off.

“Connor Terrill got his leg caught up - I thought he’d done his knee when we substituted him and he’s strapped up but I think he’ll be alright.

“We’ll look on Wednesday how we’ve fared in that department.”