Featherstone Rovers boss James Ford looking for improvement despite victory over Barrow Raiders

The victory lifted Rovers up a place to fifth in the Betfred Championship and kept them strongly in contention to finish higher, but head coach Ford is looking for more improvement at Swinton this Sunday and in the closing weeks of the season.

He said: “We were not quite at the levels we’ve been at over the previous weeks.

"We are a better team than Barrow and you saw that in patches – those patches needed to be extended.

"We came up with stuff we talked about not coming up with to allow Barrow to come into the game.

"They tried to rattle us a little bit with some different types of rugby we’ll say and we succumbed to it.

"But ultimately I’m pleased we won a game that was a challenge.”

Ford is confident his team will learn plenty of lessons from the Barrow game as they look to push on at Swinton and hopes to have a couple of first teamers back in contention for starting spot.

He added: “We’ve got to go after it a game at a time and we’ve got to learn some lessons.

"Swinton will see that and will challenge us in the areas that Barrow challenged us.

"So lots of learning for us this week. We’ll pick the intensity back up in training tafter a tough period.

"We will very likely have Greg Eden back, we’ll see how he goes in training this week.

"We will miss Connor Wynne, who’s picked up a suspension, but we should have Jack Bussey back, which will be a massive boost for us.”

Rovers have cut admission prices for concessions (£20 to £15) and under 16s (now free) for the the remainder of the league season in a bid to boost attendances.

CEO Martin Vickers explained: “The drop in crowds have been stark this season.

“The drop in crowds have been stark this season and our last home game against Toulouse was perhaps most notable for myself when, after our great recent form, the crowd wasn’t even 50 per cent of the numbers that attended last year’s home Toulouse game.

“I continue to hear lots of reasons why fans aren’t coming to games, but the message is simple; the team are firing, they are playing a good brand of rugby and the players need the support to maintain our play-off push."

“We need the supporters who have drifted away this season, we need you back in numbers to help maintain the club’s push for the play-offs.”