Barrow have won 2 of their 4 league games:

Dewbury (H) W 27-20
York (H) W 15-14
Whitehaven (A) L 23-22
Widnes (A) L 44-8

Based on the York result, there's every reason to believe we could be good enough to win.

This is the type of game that will ultimately determine where we finish in the league.

BBC Radio Cumbria might be covering the game. There are no details available at the time of writing.

In the mini league we targeted pre-season barrow were definitely in the bracket of teams we should be looking to beat, i personally wouldn't swap their squad for ours and a response is needed from Sundays showing, I'm confident we can get a result but i was confident of a decent showing against fev.

Having watched Barrow in the cup game against Oldham, my initial thought was that we could beat them. However not for the first time we flatter to deceive so although I expect an improvement from last Sunday (be hard to be any bloody poorer) I can't call it. Matchday 17 should be interesting given the chop and change for the last two matches. Do we need an additional playmaker at 13 and who fits that role? Over to you RH and the matchday squad, get the plays right, cut out the basic errors and if necessary grind out two welcome points.

I watched the Barrow v Oldham game too, Wilf. I thought Barrow looked beatable.

I think our main focus should be to complete our sets and not lose the wrestle. If we do that, and get faster play-the-balls, Lovodua will take advantage. He's been a bit stifled in the last two games. We could do with Greg Burns back as well.

I wonder if he'll play Hey in the second row again to allow Jason Tali to play at centre?

If we play like we did against York, Sheffield etc it's very winnable. I hope we're not of those teams that drops their performances based on the opposition

Squad

Boas, Briscoe, Ferres, Foster, Guzdek, C Hall, Halliday, Hepi, Hey, Holdstock, Johnston, Knowles, Lovodua, Lyne, Matagi, McConnell, Pauli, Robinson, Smeaton, Tali, Taulapapa

Would anyone care to predict the handicap for Sunday?

Dons to get 4 points start would be my guess.

Hope it's an omen Rovers beating Barrow .

Bet365 ...

Barrow -4 10/11
Dons +4 10/11
Handicap Draw 16/1

A Dons win is 11/8

Skybet ...

Barrow -4 10/11
Dons +4 10/11
Handicap Draw 22/1

A Dons win is 5/4

Bang on!

I had a chat with my friend at Bet 365 before I made the post!



Only kidding!

Surely the 11/8 to win would be the better value than +4pts

The odds are better, the risk is greater.

HT Barrow 6 Dons 10

FT Barrow 6 Dons 38

That sounds like one hell of a performance in the second half!

Great 2nd half seemed to cut the errors of the 1st half.

I listened to the Radio Cumbria commentary. The commentators were relieved at half-time that Barrow weren't further behind as the Dons were making metres on impact everytime. We made lots of mistakes in the first half in particular.

Barrow seemed to make a livelier start to the second half. We appeared to do well to keep them at bay but in the end the strength in our forwards seems too much for them.

After tough games against Wakey and Fev, I hope today's result is a reflection of where we're really at. We might not be threatening the top teams but we're more than a match for most sides in the league.

In the early stages, it sounded as though we were trying to get everything done too quickly - leading to the mistakes we made. Perhaps with the confidence that this win will bring, we'll not panic so much in future.

I think we still need to keep focussed and not get too carried away because this is a difficult league where you can't afford to be off your game or you'll get punished.

Onwards and upwards from here, hopefully.

Highlights https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rou0vserJ44

Highlights https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rou0vserJ44

First chance to comment having been away over the weekend. Excellent result by the team, wins at Barrow have not been frequent to say the least, so well done to all concerned and the manner of the win is to be applauded. The switching of players at the 7 role is to be congratulated having been surprised to seen Robbo on the bench. Watson had a really good game in that role. Having viewed the extensive highlights (well done for that format) it was apparent that we left a good few more scores out there, and the one thing to note for me was if we really click in a game as a team we appear to be more than capable of scoring some good tries and racking a few points up.