A last minute header from Newport snatched all three points for the visitors at the SO Legal Stadium, after The Bluebirds were forced to play the final 15 minutes with ten men, following a controversial red card shown to Rory Feely.
Newport started quickly, and within the first minute, they had the ball in the net through ex-Bluebird Offrande Zanzala following an attacking move involving Charlie McNeil and Adam Lewis, although the linesman ruled the goal out for offside against County’s number 10.
In the 7th minute, Patrick Brough delivered a curling dangerous ball into the box, but Newport’s goalkeeper Nick Townsend managed to rise above everyone and collected the cross into his grasp.
A couple of minutes later Ged Garner attacked down the left, but his cross-shot effort at goal was cleared from danger by Newport defender Micky Demetiou.
There was a flourish of opportunities for The Bluebirds to take the lead. Down the right-hand side a brilliant, delivered ball found the head of Ged Garner who was denied opening his Barrow league account by a superb save from Nick Townsend.
Only a minute later Sam McClelland met Elliot Newby's cross, on the volley, but his effort scraped over the bar.
27 minutes into the encounter, Aaron Lewis picked up on a loose Barrow pass, driving towards the goal, and offloaded a cross to Charlie McNeil whose shot at the near post was well saved by Paul Farman, pushing the ball out of danger for a corner, the resulting corner was well defended by Barrow.
Elliot Newby launched a counter-attack and found Ged Garner. His deflected effort was saved by Nick Townsend in the 42nd minute. Garner had looked to be the closest to opening the scoring for the home side in the opening period.
There was a brilliant opportunity for Barrow in the 57th minute, as Elliot Newby picked up the ball running at Newport’s defence, who were backtracking, and his effort deflected just a whisker wide of the mark.
Following this, in the 59th minute, Newport came the closest of either side to take the lead, Aaron Lewis found himself one-on-one against Paul Farman, with the Barrow keeper doing just enough to put Lewis off, seeing his shot go just wide of the goal.
A very end-to-end opening to the second half saw Billy Waters come inches away from sliding Barrow into the lead in the 61st, before Newport went down the other end of the pitch with Offrande Zanzala darting towards the box but was denied by a brilliant slide tackle from Patrick Brough.
Paul Farman pulled off a quite brilliant save to his left to deny Calum Kavanagh header from close range heading into the bottom corner of the goal, with Barrow’s #1 tipping the ball behind for a corner.
Referee Seb Stockbridge opted not to show a second yellow card to Newport's Aaron Lewis for what appeared to be a lunging tackle on Richie Bennett, as he called play back after giving advantage for a nasty challenge on Robbie Gotts.
Barrow would have to see out the remainder of the game with 10 men after Rory Feely was shown a controversial red card just moments later for a foul on Adam Lewis.
Feely, making his home debut, appeared to receive visible stud marks in his thigh from the high boot of Lewis, but it was Feely that Stockbridge decided to brandish a straight red to, much to the loud disagreement of the Barrow fans.
Boos rung out around the SO Legal Stadium, and the Barrow bench were left clearly perplexed by the decision, as Pete Wild was forced to make a substitution to ensure his side had defensive cover.
Ten man Barrow were punched in the gut in the last minute of added time, as the South Wales outfit netted a last-minute winner from a corner. Micky Demetriou took full advantage of the extra man, as he rose the highest to snatched a point away from The Bluebirds, and take three for County.
Full Time: Barrow 0-1 Newport County
Attendance: 2,804 (95 away)