LINDSAY Anfield conceded York Valkyrie’s performance against Barrow Raiders on Saturday had been scrappy – but felt progress had been made from last weekend’s victory against title rivals St Helens.

The reigning Betfred Women’s Super League champions found things tough-going at Craven Park, with their newly-promoted opponents putting up a real fight in front of a near-500 strong crowd.

But a devastating spell 10 minutes before the break saw the Raiders’ floodgates open, with winger Emma Kershaw leading the way with four tries as they took in a comfortable 28-0 lead at the break.

Barrow had the better of the second half, with Emma Hutchinson’s brace bringing them onto the board late on, but it was too little, too late to mount a comeback in Cumbria.

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Anfield had made four changes to her starting 13 - including giving youngster Eva Izumi a first run-out in the centres and opting to name new signing Remi Wilton on the bench - and believes that in part contributed to a display that at times lacked cohesion at Craven Park.

“It was a bit of a scrappy performance today,” she told The Press.

“We changed the squad quite considerably trying to give players some game time and learn about them, but obviously making those changes affects the flow of the game a little bit.

“But Barrow are a tough side and full credit to them playing at home. They’ve got a lot of pride playing here and they made it a good game.

“There were a few things that we were focusing on, especially our try-line defence, that we were trying to bring into the game today.

“We didn’t have to do that a lot today, but we were a little bit better in areas that we had specifically told individuals to be better on, so that was good.

“I just felt like the go-forward in the middle probably wasn’t there, that intent and aggression.

“But it’s a tough place to come, and they aren’t particularly good at travelling this group. It was good to see Remi have her first game out, and she looked really good in the middles.”