Wasps steamrollered

Barrow's 66-0 thrashing of Wasps was the Raiders' biggest-ever win in the Northern Ford Premiership era, beating by six points their previous record of 60-0 registered in this corresponding fixture last season.

Everyone at Huntington Stadium - from the boardroom through the coach to the players - are adamant that the club will turn things round. But a major improvement in the playing ranks is needed sooner rather than later otherwise dreams of a top nine finish will prove pie in the sky, even at this early stage in the season.

Boss Leo Epifania had to contend with five late cry-offs yesterday, as captain Peter Edwards, Shaun Austerfield, Danny Waite and new signing Rob Lee joined player of the year Andy Hutchinson on the injury list, while Scott Acklam was unavailable.

This meant Academy teenagers Danny Brown and Ritchie Hunter were on the bench, the former getting a taste of NFP action in the second half, while winger Leigh Deakin was moved into the second row for much of the game.

Epifania also had to contend with a somewhat contentious referee in Mike Dawber, who continually penalised York for holding down at the tackle while at the same time letting the Barrow players off for similar offences.

But much more significantly than all this, he has to contend with having a squad who, judging by yesterday's display and barring some exceptions, are not good enough for the Premiership.

Tackles were missed, balls were dropped, passes went astray, and the kicking was indifferent.

Whenever and wherever Barrow gave the ball away, York more often than not gave it straight back to nullify any advantage they were afforded; while at the other end mistakes were too easily punished and free-kicks conceded often allowed Barrow to begin sets of six with the line already in sight.

On the few occasions they did get into the Raiders' 20-metre area, there was not enough cutting edge to turn it into points, while Barrow barely had to break into a sweat to breach the defence.

The home side scored their first points of the contest after just two minutes, man of the match hooker Andrew Henderson ending a good move, and they got their second try five minutes later when Daniel Lockhart's break was finished off by Iain Marsh.

Phil Atkinson missed both conversions, the first relatively easy, and in between fell short with a gettable penalty - all three failures, plus the fact no more points were scored for ten minutes, giving rise to hopes that York could still make a game of it.

Instead, Barrow scored ten more tries and Atkinson converted nine of them.

Winger Shane Irabor got the first of his hat-trick when York's right defence found themselves in all sorts of bother trying to deal with an up-and-under, before Henderson went in for his second.

Lockhart and Irabor, again, also scored before the break to make it 32-0 at half-time.

And whereas York bounced back from the same interval deficit against Whitehaven last week to give a respectable second-half show, yesterday they conceded a further 34 points without reply after the break.

Within five minutes of the restart, Barrow scrum-half Darren Holt set the field position with a 40-20 kick and hooker Henderson broke four weak tackles to hand Matt Leigh a try, and within two more minutes the loose-forward scored again after a break by Mike Whitehead.

Creditably, the Wasps did still try to throw the ball around, with Carl Hall coming closest to the Barrow line, but the visitors' best spell of pressure ended with Barrow going up the other end and scoring in their next set of six through winger Paul Salmon, man of the match Henderson again being instrumental in the build-up.

Then the powerhouse South Seas star Tau Liku set up Irabor's hat-trick touchdown with a basketball pass before barging over himself through three half-hearted tackles.

Radney Bowker was the last to get on the scoresheet, with Atkinson goaling again to complete the Raiders' record NFP tally and another bad day for York.

Updated: 12:01 Monday, December 10, 2001