Barrow secured their first away win on an opening day of the season for 14 years with a 3-2 victory at Stockport County.
A crowd of over 10,000, with 991 from Barrow, were there to see Stockport’s return to the Football League and it was the proverbial game of two halves.
Barrow had established a 3-0 lead at half-time but Stockport fought back to make it a five-goal thriller.
Barrow went in front on six minutes when Josh Gordon ran at the Stockport defence before firing into the bottom corner from 25 yards.
It was not what the vast majority of the sell-out crowd had come to see and they were virtually silenced on 20 minutes when Barrow doubled their lead.
Ben Whitfield, a former Stockport player, cut in from the left before drilling a strong shot past Ben Hinchliffe.
After 33 minutes Barrow and manager Pete Wild were in dreamland when Billy Waters curled home an effort to send the 991 travelling Barrow fans into jubilation.
There had to be an immediate response after the break from Stockport and there was as they pulled one back after 49 minutes.
Antoni Saracenic mis-hit a shot but Barrow keeper Paul Farman was off balance and it found the net.
Fraser Horsfall grazed the bar with a good effort in the 63rd minute and Stockport were really back in the contest seven minutes later when Paddy Madden headed home a fine cross.
Stockport kept going and only a spectacular save by Farman maintained the Barrow lead when Horsfall thought he’d levelled.
Then Tyrell Warren made a brilliant last-ditch tackle to steal the ball from the feet of Madden in the box.
In the closing stages of added time Stockport thought they were going to have a chance to level from the spot.
Referee Ollie Yates signalled a penalty but after consulting his assistant he awarded a free kick to Barrow instead.
