Barrow Raiders took a firm step towards Championship safety when they beat Cumbrian neighbours Whitehaven 34-14 at the Northern Competitions Stadium.
But for Haven it left them teetering on the brink – two points adrift with just two games to play and League One beckoning.
Yet they were very much in the contest at the break when a very tight and competitive first half had ended 14-10 to the Raiders.
Crucially though Whitehaven had Sam Ackroyd binned on 43 minutes and during his absence their former winger Andrew Bulman went in for his second try, converted by Ryan Shaw and the gap was ten points.
When Ryan Johnston intercepted on 63 minutes and raced away for a try, again converted by Shaw the gap had widened to 16 points.
Two minutes later Whitehaven were given hope when Edene Gebbie burrowed through for a try but Lachlan Hanneghan couldn’t convert and that was the visitors’ last addition to the scoreline.
Before the end Owen McCarron (Whitehaven) and Greg Worthington (Barrow) were shown red cards for their contributions to a fight and both sides played the last eight minutes with 12 men.
Shaw landed a subsequent penalty and right at the end Luke Broadbent followed-up a :Luke Ctresswell chip to score the final try with Shaw converting after the hooter.
In the much closer first-half Haven had gone in front after five minutes with an unconverted try by Joe Romeo.
Bulman scored his first try on ten minutes and Shaw put Barrow ahead with the conversion but on 17 minutes Haven were back in front with a try by Hanneghan which he converted for a 10-6 lead.
They thought they were in again on 24 minutes but were brought back for a forward pass and two minutes later James Greenwood crossed for Barrow with Shaw converting.
There was more bad luck for the visitors when Noah High went after a bouncing ball over the Barrow line but couldn’t gather cleanly and the only further score was a Shaw penalty
