Tired, disjointed performance from the team this afternoon.
All credit to Barrow whose heads could have dropped at 18 nil down. At this point they scored a cracker of a try down their left wing and from that point they were flying and it was game on. A good crowd of 3400 sensed that they were not out of the fight and the game increasingly became a struggle for us.
Our famed watertight defence was positively porous and fragile, perhaps because the team had not had a practice since Saturday's game - according to Lam in his pre-game interview. Perhaps it was due to the team changes and resting of key players - Inu, Mellor, Sidlow, Aekins, Wardle, Smith or the testing of previously untried defensive combinations, Brand at full back, Hichcox wing, Roberts centre and Hingano scrum half. Perhaps too many changes for smooth continuity. Oh, and by the way there was one hell of a defensive howler for one of their tries which will now be shown for years on You've Been Framed. Just wait until you see the highlights.
It all got pretty scary towards the end of the game particularly when they went 4 in front with 10 minutes left and then had a penalty at 28 -30 with a couple of minutes left which they elected to kick for the draw, and missed, rather then go for a last set of 6 near the Leigh line.
Hopefully we can put this performance to bed. We won. We showed a certain amount of resilience to get the win against highly motivated and determined opponents demonstrating no little amount of collective will to win and skill. Barrow were opponents who were in their own back yard in front of a noisy and pumped-up home crowd who smelled blood of the cherry and white variety. We got away with a close game. On to Sunday and on to Halifax. Hopefully a chance to show we are better than what we put forward for show today.
