Barrow made it back-to-back clean sheets for the first time this season after they secured a 2-0 away win at Forest Green Rovers.
Pete Wild’s men made the perfect start to the match after Sam Foley’s deflected effort put the Bluebirds one up after only four minutes. Dom Telford bagged his first Barrow goal to double our lead in the 18th minute, but the Bluebirds relied on a series of heroics from Paul Farman during the reminder of the evening to secure the three points.
Wild opted to make three changes to the side that drew 0-0 with AFC Wimbledon at the weekend as Foley, Telford, and Luca Stephenson came into the side in place of Ben Whitfield, Emile Acquah, and Robbie Gotts.
Wild like the 49 travelling Barrow fans must have been absolutely buzzing when of those incoming players broke the deadlock only four minutes into the first half when Foley struck a left-footed shot from range, which took a big deflection before finding its way into the back of the net.
After a hectic opening five minutes, the game seemed to calm down for a while until Barrow doubled their lead in the 18th minute after Elliot Newby’s deflected shot found its way to Telford, who reacted quickly to poke the ball home before doing a rather interesting celebration.
Farman was first called into action three minutes later when Callum Morton looked to be in on goal, but George Ray did sensationally to get back and put off the attacker who could only fire into the arms of our keeper.
Farman made another big stop 13 minutes later when he came out superbly to deny former Watford captain Troy Deeney who was played through on goal.
After a number of fine stops from Farman Barrow looked to put the game to bed and many thought they had done when Telford tried his luck from range in the 40th minute. Dean Campbell slid a ball through the lines to Telford who quickly shifted the ball onto his left foot before blasting a shot from 30 yards, which narrowly evaded the top left corner of the goal.
The Bluebirds continued their hunt for a third goal and were denied by the bar in first-half stoppage time when our two goal scorers combined quickly in the area before Foley blasted a left-footed strike toward goal, only for it to cannon back out off the bar.
The second period proved to be a nervy one for the travelling Bluebirds who watched on as Farman showed the New Lawn Stadium a masterclass in goalkeeping.
Arguably his finest stop came in the 70th minute when he came out quickly to deny Deeney on the volley, but the rebound fell straight into the path of Morton who seemed certain to score but again the keeper performed heroics to dive low and make a great save on the stretch.
Four minutes later he was called into action again when Grant McCann was played through on goal, but again the 33-year-old got low to smother the attacker’s effort.
That proved to be the final chance of the game as Barrow held on to secure their third away victory of the season in front of another excellent away end.
Barrow XI: Farman, Ray, Canavan ©, Chester, Worrall, Newby (Mazeed 83), Stephenson (Acquah 64), Campbell (White 45), Spence, Foley (Gotts 72), Telford (Garner 72).
