What a great week. It now seems that we are starting to be rewarded for all the hard work that we have been doing.

I’m absolutely convinced that hard work equals success and we are starting to get evidence of that.

The capturing of Liam Paisley, hot on the heels of Ben White, is starting to give the squad a solid look.

Martin Aspinwall was able to rest a slight niggle at the weekend, when in previous weeks we would have probably asked him to put his hand up to play. With players set to return from injury, our problem will be who to leave out.

The Featherstone performance and result was beyond our wildest dreams. From minute one, we looked sharper and it was soon obvious that they had taken us too lightly.

It is very hard for a team to change gear when they have started with lethargy and so it proved as Featherstone couldn’t match us for the full 80. Every single player deserves praise, as do our supporters who have stuck with us all season.

Off the field, we had a fantastic boxing event on Saturday. Graeme Dale and Dan Payne need plenty of praise for pulling the event off.

There wasn’t a massive crowd but the fights themselves were very entertaining and everyone had a great time. I’ve got a feeling that this is something that is capable of growing and growing.

I still realise that there is such a lot to do to improve the club. Everywhere I look I see areas of investment required, but I feel we are moving forward.

We had our interim safety inspection this month and we realise that there is an awful lot of work required to keep the ground up to scratch.

Following the Hillsborough Inquiry, many councils are risk averse in allowing large capacities and ours has been reduced to around the 3,000 mark.

Obviously we all know that we can fit many more people in the ground, but the calculations take in to account things like the number of exits and crush barriers so that if an emergency situation did arise everyone could get out safely and quickly.

Other improvements are obvious. The Raiders Bar or a shiny new replacement would be top of my shopping list, but everything under the stands from the changing rooms to the kitchen to the boardroom are also very dated.

We are delivering pretty much what we promised in our Development Plan that we produced last year but maybe next year we could start to become a touch more ambitious.

As well as the future, we can’t afford to forget our past and Dave Huitson has published his latest book “In the Beginning” that charts the history of Barrow Rugby through the Union years from 1875 to 1897.

It is a must read for all our supporters who want a better understanding of the origins of the club.