THANKFULLY, the government kept to their roadmap and we were delighted to announce that crowds will return for our North Wales fixture on the Bank Holiday weekend at the end of May.

The players, coaches and staff are all looking forward to hearing the noise of the crowd. Professional sport simply isn’t the same without a crowd.

Due to the Covid restrictions still in force the match will be all ticket with tickets now available on the club website.

We appreciate that some fans will not be internet savvy, so they have the option of purchasing during office hours from our Scott Street office.

There will be no cash purchases on the day of the game, but we will still be taking online sales up to kick off time if we have not reached capacity.

We urge all our supporters to purchase early so that we can plan accordingly.

RETURN: Fans at the Matt Johnson Prestige Stadium

RETURN: Fans at the Matt Johnson Prestige Stadium

The complexities of the Covid rules and online ticketing software means that places in the grandstand will be on a first come, first served basis and we will then ensure that each bubble will be socially distanced from the next.

We obviously kicked off at the weekend with the victory at Coventry but there was a genuine feeling from the squad on the return bus journey that there was a lot to improve on and we can and will get better.

This week’s fixture with Keighley is massive. They had a fantastic victory over promotion rivals Doncaster, and they will fancy their chances.

There is not much margin for error in this league with only eighteen league fixtures and a couple of quick defeats could consign us to the play-offs even at this early stage.

That’s partly the reason why we have again entered the market to bring in a couple more players in the shape of Hakim Miloudi and Sam Dowsett.

All the good work off the pitch has put us in a decent position financially and with Ryan Shaw suffering from a long-term injury and us previously losing Shaun Lunt we wanted to act quickly to fill the voids.

We are determined to take our club to a better place and everything we do off the field will be ploughed back into both the team and improving facilities.

STADIUM: Barrow Raiders Matt Johnson Prestige Stadium

STADIUM: Barrow Raiders Matt Johnson Prestige Stadium

Barrow Raiders Ladies also got their season underway and they had a lot more emphatic result than the men with a wide margin victory at Halifax.

We are going to give the girls our full support and we already get the sense that the Barrow Raiders supporters have bought into them and the start of their journey.

We have managed to arrange most of the fixtures as double-headers including our home openers, both against Keighley. However, we like the look of the Leigh game a week later when the men travel to Hunslet and the ladies are at home.

This will be the first fixture for either team in The Matt Johnson Prestige Stadium and we are hoping to attract a bumper crowd to support them.

They kick off at 2pm and we have asked that the Hunslet fixture be streamed into the marquee with the Raiders picking up the production costs.

It could be a really good day for the club, and it would be fantastic if we attracted a crowd that could put some League One clubs to shame.