WHAT a fantastic start to the league season at Doncaster against a very strong side.

I felt on a couple of occasions that the game was running away from us but we dug deep and were rewarded for a great team effort. Not many teams will go to Doncaster and be victorious so that has put down a big marker.

I think that what we achieved was testimony to the stability we have created off the field.

There weren’t any knee-jerk reactions to relegation as the board understood that we have a quality coaching team.

Keeping the coaching team together was then instrumental in keeping the team together and adding some quality additions.

I don’t quite understand the need in the sporting world to sack talented individuals just because we don’t achieve intended results. Sometimes in sport these things happen; by the very nature there are winners and losers.

Finding replacements replicating the experience, knowledge and work commitment would have been virtually impossible.

We now look ahead to Coventry and we made big news last week with a series of innovative promotions to try to bring in bigger, younger crowds.

As well as getting a season ticket in every schoolchild’s hand - that’s over 11,000 season tickets - we have also offered free entry to adults that bring 10 children or more in an effort to entice sporting clubs, community groups and the like.

We also have planned curtain raisers before every game in an attempt to have home Sundays as a festival of rugby and there’s free entry for everyone who gets in before those games. We really are making an attempt to grow the game and hopefully we will be rewarded.

As ever, the board have to focus on income generation and we hope to have extra merchandise in the ground on matchdays. It would be great if free entry allowed some disposable income to get the children in Barrow Raiders-branded gear.

There is so much going on at the club at the moment. There is a really good feeling around the place as everyone is working exceptionally hard.

We have contacted the historians of our club and have a Hall of Fame evening planned in early May; there is a possibility of a Masters festival and a music festival also in that month.

A wrestling/boxing event is in the calendar for July and looking further ahead we have our Golf Tournament in September and a massive coup as we have enticed Andrew Johns for a sportsman’s dinner in the middle of an Ashes series.

Our community section are just about to embark on some rambling and running clubs while they continue to work with girls rugby, which will hopefully feed in to Barrow Ladies.

We have lots of great sponsors who are very supportive of the plans and I firmly believe the club is on the up in terms of both profile and achievement.