A 54-0 defeat away to Sheffield Eagles isn’t how Barrow Raiders head coach Paul Crarey would have wanted to mark his 300th game at the helm.

Crarey said the hosts were just “too good” for his side over the 80 minutes, but he did admit that the Cumbrians are struggling with key players missing at the moment.

Speaking to the club’s official Facebook page after the mauling down in Yorkshire, he said: “They are a team that’s on fire and well-balanced at the moment, and we talk about us being unbalanced at the moment because we are down to our last few bodies and the personnel that are missing.

“Max Clarke has had to go home because of a family bereavement. Tom Forber and Matt Costello are missing.

“We lost Ryan Johnston for a spell in the first half and then in the second half he was off with a HIA (head injury assessment).

“So we are backs against the wall at the moment, because we’ve not got balance in our team.

“Until we get that back we have got fight hard and work hard to fix things up.

“At times I thought we gave everything, but it just wasn’t enough against a very good side.

“Sometimes you have got hold your hands up and say this team is better than us.

“I think they are the form team in the division this year.

“So I’ll hold my hand up and say they were a better team than us, but where we are at, at the moment is we are lacking quality bodies (skipper Jarrad Stack, Charlie Emslie and Shane Toal are also among those out) and we are playing lads that we are developing.”

Crarey also felt his side caused themselves problems due to errors, but felt they should have taken the lead against the Eagles.

He added: “A couple of mistakes cost us field position (in the first half) and we went toe-to-toe. We call it grinding, and we were really good for 20 or 22 minutes, perhaps it was less than that.

“A mistake in midfield, a little offload gave them field position and then it was an error, then a penalty and then it was a try.

“That happened four times after we had the ascendancy and scored.

“Ellis Gillam grounded the ball on the line, and it was chalked off, which I was very disappointed in the decision.

“You know Ellis was going mental about it really, and we could have gone six zip up because it was by the stick.

“But they are a team that is slick and on fire, and once they got their tails up they lead 24-0 at half-time.

“It was four errors and four penalties that got them in that position, but they were clinical.

“We spoke at half-time about pulling it back, working hard to get points on the board and to try to upset them.

“But then we threw an intercept on the first play of the second half, and I just watched their heads go down.”