Barrow Raiders can concentrate on Championship ambitions after losing 32-6 to York Knights at the Northern Competitions Stadium.
It was a decent effort by the Cumbrians as it was only in the final quarter of the game that the Super League outfit pulled away.
They were 14-6 ahead at half-time and that scoreline did not change until the 62nd minute with the first of four tries, and before then Barrow had given them a good honest test.
The Knights opening had also been impressive as Barrow were caught-out, conceding two tries in the first 15 minutes.
Toa Mata’afa opened the scoring on four minutes and then on 11 minutes former Whitehaven centre Nikau Williams touched down in the corner when Barrow couldn’t
Midway through the first half, Barrow had Ryan King sent to the sin bin for an alleged shoulder charge and he was soon followed by York’s Jesse Dee who was rightly punished for a mistimed tackle.
The game erupted six minutes before half time as rising tempers went out of control and a brawl followed, which resulted in straight red cards for Barrow’s Greg Richards and York’s Paul McShane.
Now 12 against 12, Barrow made the breakthrough on 38 minutes and this time it was York whose defence failed to deal properly with a bouncing ball and it went loose. Luke Cresswell responded by picking up and scoring under the posts for Brad Walker to convert.
Back in at, trailing by just two points, Barrow shot themselves in the foot by conceding again right on the stroke of half-time.
Jack Martin forced his way over for their third try and this time Liam Harris converted.
It was still 14-6 to the visitors after the third quarter but Williams scored his second try on 62 minutes and it proved to be a disappointing end to the game for Barrow.
Jesse Dee, Oli Field and debutant Paul Vaughan scored the additional tries as Barrow tired with Williams converting one of them.
Hear what Paul Crarey had to say about the performance below:
