Barrow had to settle for a second successive home draw last night when they were held 1-1 by Accrington Stanley.
It keeps the Bluebirds a point outside the automatic play-off places and facing a massive game on New Year’s Day at Wrexham, the team immediately above them.
Surprisingly to many fans top scorer Ben Whitfield was left on the bench but manager Pete Wild brought him on after a goal-less first half – and he duly obliged.
It had been a poor contest in the opening 45 minutes when Shaun Whalley was closest to opening the scoring for the visitors.
The arrival of Whitfield seemed to change the game considerably as he was close twice to giving Barrow the lead before he struck on 52 minutes, curling in his ninth goal of the season.
If they had held the advantage Barrow would have been back in the automatic play-off places but Stanley also have promotion in mind. They finished the game just three points off the play-off places.
On 71 minutes Josh Woods created a shooting opportunity for skipper Joe Pritchard and he was on target from the edge of the area.
Both sides thought they could have won it. Barrow manager Wild felt his side should have had a penalty when Emile Acquah went down in the box while Jack Nolan hit the bar for Stanley in time added on.
