Barrow suffered only their second League Two defeat of the season when they went down 3-1 at Northampton.
It leaves Pete Wild’s side third in the table with their conquerors now only a point behind along with Salford and Doncaster.
A five-minute burst right after half-time, after the sides had turned round all square, put the Cobblers in the driving seat.
Northampton had scored first after just five minutes when Sam Hoskins produced a neat finish to grab his eighth goal of the season.
But Barrow, who had actually started brightly despite conceding the opening goal, drew level on 13 minutes through top scorer Josh Gordon. Put through by Sam Foley he cleverly held off the defender before firing home past keeper Lee Burge.
Northampton began to take charge and were putting Barrow under increasing pressure the longer the game went on.
Forty second after the re-start Kieron Bowie got on the end of Ali Koiki’s cross to head the home side in front for the second time.
Then four minutes later Barrow were undone again. Tylor Magloire this time scored with a header from a corner by Mitch Pinnock.
Barrow never seriously looked like getting back into the contest except late on when substitute David Moyo was denied by a brilliant save from Burge.
