Barrow Raiders announced that five of their players have signed new contracts with the club this week.

Tom Hopkins, Adam Ford, Jake Carter, Mark Tyson, and Carl McBain have all put pen to paper and secured their future with the Betfred League 1 club.

Head coach Paul Crarey was delighted that all five have decided to stay with the club after only playing three games last season.

“It is important that we build a good squad,” he began.

“Last year we thought that we would do well in our bid for promotion.

“We went to Doncaster, which is a really difficult place to go , and beat them and then it all collapsed when we went into lockdown in March.

“It has been seven months now since our last game, so I am really pleased that everyone is more or less staying from last year.”

Ford and Hopkins have both came through the amateur ranks and have impressed since making the step up, with the former coming through the club’s academy.

With most of the club’s players coming from the local area, Crarey believes that having local talent in the Raiders team is essential going forward.

Furthermore, he hopes that the team’s local talent will maintain support for the club in the area.

He said: “Having these local lads is exactly what we want.

“We want to have local talent sprinkled in with players from elsewhere.

“So we are pleased to have local players playing for the club, as our support will want to see them play and represent the team and the area.”

Unfortunately, Raiders’ win at Doncaster was one of only three games the club played last season.

The club only played two games in the league, winning both, and were close to causing a Challenge Cup upset against Featherstone Rovers, but were defeated.

Crarey admitted that this year has been tough for the club, but has credited how they have operated in such difficult conditions.

He said:”It has been a tough year for the players and myself, but more so for the club.

“The club have been a credit to themselves this year, they have continued to pay everyone and diversify at the same time.

“Even though there has been no games, the club is still growing and doing some great work.”

One of the programmes the club have sponsored is Advantage! which received £26000 this week in funding.

The community programme promotes sport, health and well being in the Barrow area.

Crarey finished by noting the programme’s success and hopes it can continue to support the community.