ACCORDING to the York Press, Barrow are York’s bogey team – and long may it continue.

Raiders repelled a spirited York 26-19 to register their 13th win on the bounce against them, a run stretching back to 2007.

York came to Craven Park, where they haven’t won since 2004, with form, and are still the only team in League One to defeat the Toronto superstars, so Barrow had to be at their best to win. They weren’t far off, with an almost perfect performance.

Discipline was good and the defensive structure was pretty sound, apart from a couple of blips.

Attack was exciting, with two excellent tries out wide from Brett Carter, and the champagne moment was the 40-metre Joe Bullock blockbuster try, which virtually sealed the victory.

I know York head coach James Ford was forced to make six changes from the side that defeated Workington Town the previous week, including the absence of ex-Barrow favourite Andy Ellis, but York would have had to go some to overcome a Barrow team hitting form at the right time.

“This ‘bogey team’ thing is rubbish. It’s just a matter of time before we win up here,” said Ford of the apparent Barrow hoodoo.

The Super-Eights enjoy a week off while the Ladbrokes Challenge Cup final at Wembley takes centre stage this afternoon, with Wigan playing Hull.

Based on current league positions and the three games left, I think York will finish fourth, which means they will travel to the team finishing third in the semi-finals. Let’s hope it's Whitehaven, as a full-strength York will be dangerous in a one-off match, as James Ford keeps telling us.

York have Doncaster and Newcastle at home and have to travel to Whitehaven, so they should be win two of those games and guarantee fourth place.

The race for fifth is interesting between Doncaster and Keighley. It could come down to points difference, which favours Keighley, and Doncaster have to go to Toronto.

The team finishing fifth have to travel to the team in second, now between Barrow and Whitehaven. Should the second-placed team win the semi- final, they are guaranteed home advantage in the final.

At the moment, Barrow have a two-point lead on Haven and have a significant points difference.

Haven have a much more difficult last three games, with a trip to Toronto followed by the visit of York and the Cumbrian derby at Workington.

In contrast, we play Workington at home next week, then it’s the trip to Toronto and finally Keighley at home.

Two home victories should guarantee second, as I can’t see Whitehaven beating Toronto.

So Raiders coach Paul Crarey has a bit of a conundrum. Does he keep most of the squad at home and give other squad members the experience of a trip to Toronto? He could actually keep 10 first-teamers at home.

Having spoken to Paul after the York game, the decision won’t be made until after next week’s results. What would you do?

It’s all looking positive. If we can maintain this form and stay second, we would be two home victories from promotion. A Craven Park final against Whitehaven would be something special.

We couldn’t get 1,000 for the York game, which is very disappointing and I am not sure what else the club can do to attract more supporters?