BARROW Raiders completed the double over Jonty Gorley’s Whitehaven who admitted after the game that they may end the season without a recognised hooker as injuries continue to dent Haven’s survival bid. 

A four point advantage at the break left the derby poised but a masterclass from the Raiders saw them score thirty unanswered points and keep themselves ahead of the chasing pack for the final play-off place. 

It was a perfect start from the home side who scored in just the fifth minute following the sin-binning of Haven full-back Luke Broadbent for pushing Raiders winger Brett Carter into the advertising hoarding in an off the ball incident.

From the resulting penalty the home side took a few tackles before from the ball right and then over the top to Tee Ritson who touched down with an acrobatic finish inches from the touchline.

Ryan Shaw couldn’t convert from the touchline in which would be the only miss of his conversion attempts of the afternoon. 

The home side went back to back in the next set as Jarrod Sammut was on the end of what ended up being the first of multiple breaks from on loan centre Matty Costello.

Costello was slowed slightly by Karl Dixon who was covering the full back role with Broadbent off the field. The Maltese international ran in from about 30 metres to score. 

Following the fast start from the home the game settled down into a typical rough and tough derby fixture. Opportunities were limited for both sides despite having periods of sustained possession at times but it was into the final minute of the first half when the next score came.

Haven got an opportunity in the final two minutes as Nathan Mossop dropped the ball trying to scoot out of dummy half and Haven were able to take advantage. Connor Holliday was the try scorer on the right hand side as he exploited a gap in the defence. Williams converted to reduce the gap at the break to four points.

However that was as good as it got for the visitors as in the second half they couldn’t control the power, pace, speed and accuracy of the home side as they fell to a defeat - and a fourth game without a win.

The Raiders once again scored back-to-back tries at the start of the second half. Firstly Greg Burke making his debut on loan from Salford showed his power close to the line and grounded the ball just to left hand side of the posts.

This was followed by Matty Costello scoring his fourth in as many games being on the end of a knock back from Tee Ritson following a Jarrod Sammut cross field dink kick. Ryan Shaw converted both tries. 

Sammut then turned from try provider to try scorer as he once again backed up a Matty Costello break. Costello found Ritson on his right hand side who later passed inside to Sammut who acrobatically grounded the ball despite the best efforts of Luke Broadbent and before the hour mark the game was over a contest. 

A sin binning for Ryan King heading into the final 10 minutes made a difficult task even harder and the Raiders took full advantage scoring their final two tries as Ritson rounded off a Jarrad Stack break and Italian international Anfon Iaria rounded off a Charlie Emslie break as the visiting defence tired tackle after tackle. 

TEAMS

RAIDERS
1 Luke Cressswell
2 Tee Ritson
30 Matt Costello
26 Ryan Shaw
32 Brett Carter
6 Jarrod Sammut
7 Ryan Johnston
10 Carl Forster
22 Josh Wood
21 Ellis Gillam
25 Danny Morrow
12 Jarrad Stack
24 Anton Iaria

SUBS
9 Nathan Mossop
15 Dan Toal
17 Charlie Emslie
35 Greg Burke

Tries
Ritson 2 (5,71), Sammut 2 (6,58), Burke (44), Costello (46), Iaria (73)
Goals 
Shaw 6/7

HAVEN
24 Luke Broadbent
2 Dave Eccleston
4 Will Evans
6 Karl Dixon
5 Andrew Bulman
29 Dan Coates
7 Nikau Williams
10 Tom Walker
28 Karl Olstrom
17 Andrew Dawson
11 Ryan King
15 Connor Holliday
8 Liam McAvoy

Subs
12 Liam Cooper
20 Jake Bradley
21 Kieran Hudson
25 Perry Singleton

Tries
Holliday (39)
Goals 
Williams 1/1

Sin Bin
Broadbent (4) - Tackle off the ball
King (68) - Tackle off the ball 

Penalty count: 7-7
Half-time: 10-6
Referee: Brad Milligan
Attendance: 2556