EIGHT second half tries saw Barrow move into second place in League One and boost their promotion hopes, writes ANDREW JACKSON.

However, it was far from easy for much of the first half as they regularly lost control of the ball and failed to take advantage of the wind advantage.

Skolars went ahead early on, when confusion in the Barrow defence saw Lameck Juma pounce on a Mike Bishay grubber kick, Oscar Thomas’ conversion hitting the post.

Barrow could have levelled the scores soon afterwards after one of the nine penalties Skolars conceded in the first half saw Jamie Dallimore kick the ball 50 metres upfield.

Oliver Wilkes and Matty Holmes then combined but Joe Bullock couldn’t control the ball on the try-line.

On a humid day, with Barrow mindful that their last defeat came in the capital and Skolars needing to win to keep their faint play-off hopes alive, there were a few scuffles, niggles and backchat from both sides to the referee, who eventually took action, sin-binning Skolars’ Erjon Dollapi.

Two minutes later he was joined by Dallimore and Will Lovell. the latter running 20 metres to Dallimore to land a blow and a brawl ensued.

With two Skolars players off the field, Nathan Mossop started to make inroads into the London defence, with Andrew Dawson – in his hundredth game for the club – and Brad Brennan also coming off the bench to push Skolars on to the backfoot.

It took a good cover tackle from Oscar Thomas to stop Mossop getting over the try-line.

Both sides had been back to full numbers for just four minutes, when Skolars’ Kazeem Faturoti was sin-binned for a high tackle. Mossop took full advantage, scooting over from dummy half. Chris Hankinson converted then added a penalty and Barrow continued to attack as a 40-20 kick from Dallimore saw Barrow on Skolars’ line at the half-time hooter.

Brennan brushed past the defence for his first try, followed soon afterwards by a Karl Ashall break, finished by Hankinson, then Dallimore’s pass saw Matty Holmes cut through the Skolars’ line.

They then chose not to run a penalty, and Hankinson duly slotted over the penalty. But the try-scoring resumed quickly. Ashall put a long pass out to the right for Cameron Pitman and the winger scored again after Skolars failed to defend a kick to the corner.

Another Skolars error led to the next try. James Hill knocked-on and kicked the ball away, straight into the hands of the a very grateful Eze Harper who cut past the opposition on halfway and wasn’t going to stopped, to the delight of the Raiders’ faithful travelling support.

The fans biggest cheer came after the final try of the day. Antony Bate passed the ball inside for Karl Ashall to score under the posts. Skipper Wilkes then stepped up to take the conversion, with the hooter sounding straight after he kicked it.

SKOLARS 1 Oscar Thomas 2 Sam Nash 3 Aaron Small 4 Lameck Juma 5 James Hill 18 Jy-Mel Coleman 7 Mike Bishay 19 Erjon Dollapi 9 Ben Pointer 10 Dave Williams 22 Kazeem Faturoti 12 Will Lovell 23 Louis Robinson. Subs (all used) 14 Billy Driver 13 Toby Everett 8 Michael Sykes 16 Mike Worrincy

Tries: Juma (6) Goals: Thomas 0/1

Sin-bin: Dollapi (19) – dissent, Lovell (21) – fighting, Fatutori (35) – high tackle

RAIDERS 1 Ryan Fieldhouse (7) 30 Exe Harper (7) 16 Max Wiper (7) 5 Cameron Pitman (8) 23 Chris Fleming (7) 3 Chris Hankinson (8) 26 Jamie Dallimore (9) 8 Joe Bullock (7) 29 Karl Ashall (8) 10 Oliver Wilkes (9) 27 Matty Holmes (8) 15 Brad Crellin (7) 19 Anthony Bate (7). Subs (all used) 9 Nathan Mossop (10) 17 Andrew Dawson (8) 13 Martin Aspinwall (7) 32 Brad Brennan (9)

Tries: Mossop (35), Brennan (45,72), Hankinson (48), Holmes (50), Pitman (57,67), Harper (76), Ashall (80) Goals: Hankinson 8/10, Wilkes 1/1

Sin-bin: Dallimore (21) - fighting

Man-of-the-match; Nathan Mossop

Penalty count: 2-13 Half-time: 4-8

Referee: Andy Sweet

Attendance: 227

SCORING SEQUENCE: 4-0, 4-6, 4-8, 4-14, 4-20, 4-24, 4-26, 4-30, 4-36, 4-42, 4-48, 4-54