Barrow went down 40-18 to a very good Oldham side but the final scoreline didn’t really do justice to the Raiders performance.
It was only in the closing stages that the Roughyeds pulled clear and in the first half they got back into the contest when Barrow were down to 12 men.
In fact the Raiders had made an electric start with two converted tries in the first four minutes.
Ritson broke for the first and fed Luke Cresswell to score inside and then he found enough space wide to go in himself and both tries were converted by Brad Walker.
But it was becoming feisty very early and Joe Bullock reacted to a bad challenge by throwing the ball at his opponent and earned him ten minutes in the bin.
Barrow held on for nine of those minutes before conceding a try to Adam Milner which was converted by Riley Dean.
Although Bullock returned the momentum was with Oldham and on 32 minutes Dean went in for a try but hit the post with the conversion attempt.
Five minutes before the break Oldham scored again when Cresswell was put under pressure at a high ball and Ewan Moore seized the ball to go over for a try.
Dean’s conversion gave the visitors a 16-12 lead at the break.
Three minutes into the second-half Barrow found themselves further behind when the ball was worked wide for Jake Bibby to score and Dean added the extras.
But on 62 minutes Barrow were back in the game as Ritson scored a fine try which Walker improved and there were just four points in it.
It was Oldham who finished strongly, though, scoring three tries in the last 10 minutes through Ben Davies, Josh Drinkwater and Moore all converted by Dean.
You can hear below what Barrow coach Paul Crarey thought of the game:
