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Blackpool Panthers 10 Barrow
Raiders 40
Blackpool Panthers coach Martin
Crompton slammed his ‘gutless’ players after they
lost and they were always second best in this
Northern Rail Cup tie.
Barrow took the lead after just four minutes and
never looked back, racing into a 24-4 half time lead
before comfortably closing out the game after the
break. Panthers on the otherhand looked a shadow of
the side who had given Leigh Centurions a fright the
week before, lacking any of the passion, drive or
invention they had shown in glimpses. And Crompton
said this latest defeat should act as a wake up call
to his underperforming players. He said “ I am a bad
loser. I really don’t like losing, but what real
sticks the knife in is a gutless, heartless loss
like that. It stands out among all our performances
this season, you don’t have to be a rugby league
expert to know that. We were awful. We really
believed it was a game we could win today because we
ran them so close at their place but we were
absolutely gutless. Hopefully, this will give me the
ammunition to give the players a major reality check
now and remind them there’s still a lot of hard work
to be done.”
Sadly for Panthers, the writing had been on the wall
from the off, Barrow scoring within four minutes of
the start. Lee Dutton side stepped a couple of
tackles right in front of the Blackpool line before
offloading to Brett Law for the try. Raiders’ Kiwi
debutant Matt Ashe added the conversion and the
visitors were well on their way. The home side
allowed too many errors to creep into their game and
Barrow ruthlessly took full advantage. Ashe kicked a
penalty goal before intercepting a loose pass from
Kris Ratcliffe to run in a try from near the halfway
line, which he converted himself. By the end of the
first quarter the scoreboard made even more painful
reading for the hosts after Andrew Beattie had made
a burst down the right to send in Nick Beach. After
the half hour mark, the game was well and truly put
out of Panthers reach. Andrew Burns powering over
the line and Ashe adding the conversion to make it
0-24.
Blackpool did at least manage a response before the
break, Ratcliffe atoning for his earlier mistake
with the try. But if Panthers’ task wasn’t hard
enough, Tommy Hodkinson was sin’binned on 39 minutes
for a professional foul.
Barrow were unable to capitalise on their man
advantage but still extended their lead 10 minutes
after the break, Chris Archer scooting over from
close range and Ashe added a further two points.
Then came the moment of the game, as Liam Harrison
embarked on a super run from just inside his own
half, outstripping the entire home defence to score,
further compounding Panthers’ misery.
Carl Jones grabbed a consolation try for Blackpool,
which was converted by Lee Marsh. However, Barrow
scored again, as Dave Armistead powered over from
close range and Paul Anderson was sent off to
complete another hard day for the Panthers.
Attendance 318 Panthers Man
of the match:- Kris Ratcliffe.
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