Crarey: Barrow won’t take Oxford lightly

Barrow Raiders’ boss Paul Crarey believes Oxford are more than capable of causing problems for his team when they meet in the League 1 Cup semi-final on Sunday.

Oxford have defeated Coventry Bears and London Skolars to reach the last four and Crarey insists Barrow will not underestimate their opponents.

“The stakes are really high this week and Oxford are in the semi-finals for a reason,” he told the North-West Evening Mail.

“If you look at all of the clubs in this competition like Workington, Whitehaven, Doncaster, Keighley, Hunslet – they’re all out.

“There’s a reason for that – they haven’t been good enough on the day and they might have been complacent, and Oxford beat York (in the league) so that’s how dangerous they are.

“They’ve got dual-registration (with Castleford Tigers), and they’ve got an abundance of good players you see in Super League every week and the fringe players, they might send five of them down.

“The test for us is to focus and it will have done us the world of good to be in this situation and come out on top, especially away from home.

“One of our targets for the season when we set out in February was to reach Summer Bash and we’re just one game away from it now.

“I’ve done commentary for BBC Radio Cumbria Sport at the Summer Bash for the last couple of years and it’s an unbelievable event.

“You get fans from across the spectrum and with teams like Hull KR being there this year, you get a massive influx of fans.

“It’s a great event and well-run and there’s great entertainment for everybody. To give the Barrow fans the chance to go and sample the atmosphere would be fantastic.”