Pete Wild’s side played out a 1-1 draw against Oldham Athletic in their penultimate fixture of pre-season.
Sam Foley opened the scoring with an absolute bullet in the 18th minute before the Latics drew level midway through the second half thanks to a good header from Joe Nuttall. Barrow asked a lot of questions of the Oldham defense throughout the game but ultimately David Unsworth’s side proved stubborn to breakdown.
Having lost 5-0 to Blackpool in their previous game Wild’s side were hoping to get off to a good start tonight and were unfortunate not to be leading in the 11th minute. Dean Campbell curled a teasing cross in from the right wing, which was partially cleared into the path of David Worrall on the edge of the area who narrowly volleyed wide.
The Bluebirds continued to bombard the Athletic goal and eventually, the deadlock was broken in the 18th minute after Foley blasted a loose ball straight into the bottom corner, leaving the keeper motionless in the Oldham goal.
After an uneventful next 10 minutes, the visitors pulled level in the 32nd minute after Nuttall rose highest to head the ball into the back of the next following a looping cross from Mike Fondop.
Barrow’s final chance of the half fell to Emile Acquah, who could only head over after another teasing cross from Worrall.
Unsworth’s side heavily restricted Barrow to very few chances in the second period but the Bluebirds were very unlucky not to be in front in the 58th minute. Junior Tiensia cleverly shrugged off his marker on the left wing, before firing in a low cross to Acquah, whose low shot was well saved by Magnus Norman.
Tiensia caused more problems with his crosses two minutes later, when Oldham failed to clear their lines following the left-back cross which resulted in Worrall volleying the loose ball towards goal, but it was well blocked on the line.
The Latics again defended well reducing Barrow to very few chances. The Bluebirds eventually created one final chance of the evening as new B-Team signing Sean Etaluku fired in a low cross to Rory Feely, but the Irishman could only fire wide in the final chance of the game.
Barrow XI: Lillis, Ray ©, Trialist A (Feely 45), Warren (Trialist B 45), Worrall, Campbell, Gotts (Etaluku 79), Foley, Tiensia, Acquah (Trialist C 61 (Bray 86), Duffus.