A third successive defeat for Barrow has put them into a share of the final relegation place.
After the 1-0 defeat at Crawley Town and Stevenage’s 2-0 success at Colchester it really is getting tight as to who joins Scunthorpe Utd in the drop.
Fortunately the Bluebirds still have the better goal difference (-14) compared to Oldham (-22) and Stevenage (-25) who are all on 37 points. Oldham have also played one more game than the other two.
Phil Brown’s side had opportunities in the first-half but were unable to take them, and in the second half Crawley were the better side and took the opportunity to score the only goal which won the game.
Barrow had settled well and they had the first real chance on nine minutes but Josh Kay steered an Ollie Banks’ cross just wide.
Goalkeeper Paul Farman would have been an unlikely scorer on 17 minutes when his long clearance almost deceived opposite number Glenn Morris but he just did enough to fingertip it round the post.
Then from a corner by John Rooney the home defence failed to deal with it and Banks arrived late to shoot just wide from 12 yards.
A Rooney free kick was the next set piece to cause Crawley problems but Joe Grayson, newly restored to the Barrow starting line-up, volleyed wide.
So Barrow had definitely had considerably more opportunities than the home side in the first half, although nothing clear-cut.
But it was different after the resumption when Crawley started well and continued to ask most of the questions.
Farman did well to block Jack Payne’s powerful drive and then produced an ever better save from George Francomb’s follow-up strike.
On 56 minutes the best chance so far came from a Crawley short corner and when it was lifted into the area Kwesi Appiah headed wide from close range.
Appiah made amends a minute later when Town again worked a good position on the left and a low ball into the box was flicked beyond Farman by Appiah.
The home side were denied a second goal by a good block from Matt Platt, and then Ashley Nadasan fired a great ball across goal which only needed a touch but nobody was there to finish.
After some time Barrow began to get back into the contest and Banks got forward to the edge of the area before letting one go which was just wide.
Crawley had a big chance after 85 minutes when Appiah beat the offside trap and Farman had to charge out to make a goal-saving block.
Then in stoppage time substitute Luke James almost snatched a point but his shot, heading for the bottom corner, was cleared off the line.
