16 July 2023

Featherstone Rovers were made to fight all the way for a win which opened up a ten point lead at the top of the Championship by a committed Barrow side that made intelligent use of the blustery conditions. The sides went into the break all square, but a controlled second half performance saw Rovers home.

With Dane Chisholm making his second debut for Rovers after his return from Keighley, Rovers started strongly playing with the wind. Mark Kheirallah’s floated pass saw Gareth Gale open the scoring wide out. Then Chisholm’s deft offload put Kheirallah through for Craig Hall to finish and Rovers were 10-2 up in 10 minutes. Any thoughts of a comfortable afternoon vanished as Barrow gradually worked their way back into the game and were rewarded with two scores before half-time.

Rovers immediately re-seized the initiative after the break as Briscoe latched onto Chisholm’s long pass in space. When Arama Hau crashed over from close range, Rovers regained their ten point lead at 20-10, after Kheirallah’s second successful conversion. However, with just 55 minutes gone, that was the end of the scoring as Barrow’s best attacking efforts were met with stout Rovers defence led by Elijah Taylor and Daniel Smith, with John Davies putting in some eye-catching hits. Led by the go-forward efforts of James Lockwood, Featherstone held Barrow at arm’s-length until the final whistle.