BARROW Raiders boss Paul Crarey is calling on his injury-ravaged team to come out fighting against York City Knights.

The experienced head coach says he has never known anything like the current injury crisis at Craven Park, with around a dozen players in the treatment room.

But he will still be able to field a decent line-up for tomorrow's Challenge Cup tie as they look to put their Championship form to one side - they haven't won since the opening day of the season at Batley - and enjoy the distraction of the knockout competition.

"Sometimes, I like the backs-to-the-wall stuff because it shows your character," said Crarey. "It shows your mental toughness and your resolve.

"Sometimes when it's easy, you lose all those qualities and you need to get back to being mentally tough, grinding out results and managing games better and giving you that mindset for when you play these top sides."

Among Barrow's seven successive games without a win was a 56-0 reverse at Bootham Crescent, but their results on their own turf have been relatively close affairs - and of course they haven't lose at home to the Knights since 2004. The visitors will also travel with a much-changed team from that mid-February mauling.

Crarey said: "We could get blown away if we're not ready for York, like we weren't last time, or we can have a scrap.

"We can fight hard, support each other in everything we do, and if we can increase what we do by 10 per cent then it will make a massive difference.

"But we are not far away and for all the doubters, we haven't been towelled up at home.

"Widnes, who are full-time, only beat us by 16 points; Sheffield, it was a penalty on the bell; Dewsbury, we got a draw after we dominated the game. It's a tough division and we've had to change our team every single week from week one."

He added: "I thought we played the better football against Swinton (a 33-26 home defeat last week). We opened them up, we missed opportunities to score and our tries were manufactured. We're doing some good things, we can see that as a group and we'll keep pushing forward.

"Our shape is getting forward from the team which has been put together, but it's the injury crisis.

"I've never known anything like it in my time in rugby league, but we're willing to grind to pull it together."