BARROW Raiders needed to be smarter against Bradford Bulls, that was the verdict of head coach Paul Crarey.

Crarey felt his side started both halves of the game badly, which proved costly and said his side were made aware that Bulls would bring the game to them.

Speaking to the club’s official Facebook page after the 36-24 defeat, Crarey said: “It was always going to be tough. We spoke about that before we went out there, the start of each half when you play on a small track against a very big side.

“We knew we’d have our moments in the game, but at one point we were 16 zip down, and looking down the barrel of a gun.”

Crarey felt his side showed plenty of fight to narrow the gap, but mistakes and injuries hampered their fight back.

He added: “We got ourselves back in the game, scored some nice tries. One set in their half after 25 minutes resulted in a try and then we had a mirror image of that (for another try).

“Then a kick by Shawy (Ryan Shaw) 40 metres out into the wind just before half-time. So it was a four-point ball game.

“We spoke about the second half being a mirror image and that they would come hard at us, and they scored straight after half-time which was disappointing.

“Then  we got a foothold in the game, but we lost Max Clarke early, then Bradley Walker with a pulled calf, and then we had to mix and match and have people playing everywhere.

“We had Brett Carter playing at nine and he’s a centre, Cozzy (Matt Costello) playing in the halves, who is a centre.

“Woody (Josh Wood) was outstanding, but we couldn’t just leave him out there pulling down that middle all day long, so there was going to be consequences.

“But again little errors, not playing the ball correctly, forcing a couple of passes, unforced errors got us into trouble.

“And dead-ball restarts in the second half when we had them on the rack down here repeat sets are needed or turn the ball over five from five off their goal-line and we didn’t do that.

“But it was big brave effort from us. You know we lost Johno (Ryan Johnston) on Friday and Bradley Walker got off his sick bed to play.

“So it was a brave effort, but smarts I think we needed to be smart, because this game was there for the taking once we’d settled in.

“But the start of each half definitely got us.”