It was billed as a potential banana skin FA Cup-tie for Barrow at unbeaten Banbury United.
In fact it ended a comfortable step up to tomorrow night’s second round draw with a convincing 4-0 victory.
It was the biggest day in Banbury’s history since someone dreamed up a nursery rhyme.
The game was watched by a sell-out 2,400 crowd – and thousands more watching live on ITV4.
About 150 Barrow fans had made the long journey south and were delighted to see their favourites take an eighth minute lead.
Josh Gordon shot across home keeper Ben Taylor from a narrow angle for his fourth goal of the season.
Credit to Banbury, however, as they finished the first half the better side, working hard and putting in plenty of effort without creating any clear cut chances.
But until the closing stages Barrow had kept Taylor on his toes, needing to make a couple of top class saves to keep his side in the contest. The Bluebirds defence had been solid throughout, restricting opportunities for the hosts to the bare minimum.
Banbury had started the second-half on the front foot but it was Barrow who scored again in the 51st minute. Offrande Zanzala finished clinically after Kelvin Langmead had misjudged a bouncing ball.
It stayed at 2-0 until the 80th minute when Ollie Banks scored from the penalty spot after Zanzala had been brought down by Taylor.
It had been a thoroughly professional display by Mark Cooper’s men and Jordan Stevens scored a fourth in the 83rd minute.
Speaking after the game Barrow manager Mark Cooper said: “This was a big day for Banbury and I needed my team to make it a damp squib for them by putting on a thoroughly professional performance.
“I believe that’s what we got and I’d like to think that’s what the television pundits would be saying about us.
“It’s always important to get off to a good start and we should probably have scored before we did, and at half-time I thought we should have had more than one goal to show for it.
“We spent a lot of time on the training ground during the week working on our defensive shape as we knew what to expect, and I’m pleased how we coped with them.
“It’s Banbury’s big day in the FA Cup. The plan was to get in and get out with the result – and I sincerely hope they go on and gain promotion.”
A disappointed Banbury manager Andy Whing said: “The final score-line is very harsh. We gifted them three, even the first goal, but they have been clinical, that’s all it was. The second goal was the killer, a mistake between the goalkeeper and the centre half.
“We were a bit nervous when they scored, but after half an hour I thought we were in the ascendancy. The second goal was a bit of a sucker punch really, it wasn’t 4-0 to be fair.”
