Barrow Raiders head coach Paul Crarey has warned his side against complacency with them going into their first home league fixture of the season against Coventry widely expected to win.

The Raiders have had an encouraging start to their campaign after pushing the highly-fancied Championship side Featherstone Rovers all the way in the Coral Challenge Cup before coming from behind to defeat fellow promotion contenders Doncaster in their Betfred League One opener.

The club are hoping for a good crowd inside Craven Park tomorrow, after starting a series of initiatives aimed at getting younger fans into the ground, when a dry afternoon is forecast.

The Bears finished ninth last season, only winning four games, but Crarey saw enough from their performance in the 28-8 loss against Newcastle Thunder to convince him they’re not to be taken lightly.

“We’re tagged by the media and by the betting people as favourites, but if you get injuries then you become very vulnerable,” Crarey said.

“We want a squad where everyone fights to get in on merit and if you dip slightly you’ll lose you place, so everybody is playing for their shirts now and that’s how we got up last time.

“Coventry, like West Wales and like North Wales, have spent a bit of money this year and we’ve looked at the transfers they’ve made and a lot of the Coventry lads are from Bradford, or around that area, and they travel down.

“I’ve watched their game against Newcastle, who scored early but there was a real purple patch from Coventry where they were very enthusiastic and matched them for long periods, and it was pretty close for a long, long time.

“In any sport, you can’t take anything for granted because you’ll get bitten and we have a saying that ‘complacency is the enemy of winners,’ so we’ll make sure that our feet remain firmly on the ground.”

The match comes just too soon for captain Jarrad Stack, who is close to returning from a knee injury, but there’s good news on half-back Jake Carter as he’s back from a shoulder problem picked up during the pre-season friendly against Workington Town in January.

Barrow have also been monitoring the fitness of Wartovo Puara (back), Jamie Dallimore, Declan Hulme (both shoulder) and Lee Jewitt (knee) after they took knocks at Doncaster.

Crarey said: “Jarrad will be fit for North Wales [on March 22), that’s his game, while Nathan Mossop has been given the all clear.

"He needs to go back to graded contact so we’ll get him back in the next few weeks.

“Jake Carter will be available for selection this week - he came through training well on Tuesday, and there’s a need to get him up to speed because he’ll be cover for Dalli and Ryan [Johnston], so these are the games we can put him in.”