BARROW RAIDERS coach Paul Crarey says his players paid the price for cutting too many corners in their last league outing – and has called on them to put things right away to Widnes on Sunday.
The 36-12 home defeat by York came after two eye-catching wins on the bounce, 20-6 against Oldham at the Northern Competitions Stadium and 18-8 away to Bradford.
Barrow, who have set their sights on securing a play-off spot for the first time since 2022, dropped a place to fourth as a result, and Crarey suggested the team were “believing in their own press”.
He admitted: “It was a loose performance right across the board. We had 47 percent completion, we were lucky to go in only six points down at half-time, and we didn’t use the wind in the second half.
“Everyone wanted to play sideways instead of going forward. We just didn’t deserve any field position. We didn’t stick to our process, and we weren’t hungry enough.”
Barrow conceded six tries – twice as many as in their previous two games put together.
And Crarey continued: “We got beaten through the middle, and that’s not like us. They’ve had to knock the flags out in the past. We were like a sieve, and that’s so disappointing.
“York were great. They did the basics well and ran hard. Jordan Thompson through the middle was outstanding, and Paul McShane orchestrated things.
“But we weren’t switched on and we didn’t want to work hard enough. We call it cutting corners, when we want to play our way out, rather than kick our way out.
“I thought our kicking game in the second half was abysmal, and it put us under all kinds of pressure.
“We were loose and didn’t want to do the tough stuff. We were pretty soft all over the pitch, and that hasn’t been us.”
