Barrow opened their 1895 Cup campaign with a 30-8 victory against Workington Town at the Fibrus Community Stadium.
The Championship side conceded two tries in the last nine minutes when Town finished really strongly to encourage their fans about prospects for the League One season.
The strong wind was generally against fast, open play but at times Barrow looked sharp and slick in possession, posing plenty of problems for their hosts.
Town, though, stuck doggedly to their task and were rewarded for their commitment and effort with their two late tries, both by winter recruits, the ex-Whitehaven pair of Dave Eccleston and Chris Taylor.
Town had the strong wind behind them in the first half but it was Barrow who went in front on 11 minutes. Former Workington forward Jarrad Stack charged over from short range and Ryan Shaw converted.
Town got into a couple of decent attacking positions but were guilty of handling errors and opportunities were lost.
Mostly it was Barrow who forced the pace and they doubled their lead on 23 minutes with a nicely created and executed try. Matt Costello put in a finely weighted chip for Ryan Johnston to appear, as if from nowhere, to collect and dive over by the posts for Shaw to convert.
It stayed at 0-12 until half-time and with the elements behind them Barrow made a flying start to the second half.
Quick hands had Town in trouble and a lovely pass from Brad Walker sent Stack surging in for his second try, again converted by Shaw.
On 48 minutes Barrow were in again through Max Clarke when he collected a tipped pass from Johnston to score in the corner and Shaw augmented with a fine conversion.
When Aaron Smith marked his Barrow debut by burrowing over for his first try after 57 minutes it looked like Barrow would run away with it. But Shaw made his only miss of the game and Town came back strongly in the final quarter.
They rounded off a good spell of pressure with an unconverted try from Dave Eccleston in the corner.
A remarkable penalty by Shaw from five yards inside his own half demonstrated both his kicking ability and the strength of the wind.
It might have been the last score of the game but in the very final action Town added a second try from Chris Taylor out wide and Carl Forber’s missed conversion signalled the end of the contest.
Barrow are back in 1895 action next week when they travel to Whitehaven.
John Walsh spoke to the respective coaches, Anthony Murray (Town) and Paul Crarey (Barrow) as well as Whitehaven coach Jonty Gorley who had watched the game ahead of his side’s clash with the Raiders next Sunday.
