Barrow Raiders continued their good Championship form with a fine 18-8 home win over Widnes Vikings on Good Friday.
It was their sixth win seven matches and keeps them joint third in the table, just two points behind leaders London Broncos.
Widnes had struck first, however, just on the half hour mark when they put together a smart handling move which ended with a cut-out pass from Jack Owens putting Nathan Connell over for an unconverted try.
The Raiders hit back and took the lead right on half-time when Jarrad Stack was on the end of an angled kick back towards the posts from Ryan Johnston.
It was a welcome score for him, his first try since the 2024 season. Ellis Archer’s conversion made it 6-4 at the break.
The game swung Barrow’s way early in the second half sparked by good work by Luke Broadbent.
He took a high kick and got away from several tackles before bringing Shane Toal into play, who in turn released Tee Ritson who raced away for a super try. Archer converted.
But Widnes weren’t killed off and they pulled themselves back to within four points with 15 minutes left with Ince grabbing their second unconverted try
Barrow were not going to allow the Vikings to plunder the spoils by completing a comeback as three minutes later Curtis Teare got through a gap on the right edge.
After making ground he delivered the pass back inside for full-back Luke Cresswell to go over under the posts.
Archer converted and Barrow were able to see it through for another excellent win.
Here is Paul Crarey’s verdict on the game:
