THE handful of loyal Oxford fans who made the trip to Craven Park may have been left wishing they had stayed at home long before the final hooter sounded.

It was only the previous Wednesday they saw their team produce a battling display when going down 34-16 in a re-arranged game away to Doncaster - and indeed out-score the Dons 16-4 in the second half.

But unfortunately for them on Saturday, Oxford's latest trip north saw them come up against a Barrow Raiders team who were in a particularly unforgiving mood and had established a 56-point lead by half time.

In total, the Raiders ran in 14 tries - 12 of which were converted by Lewis Charnock - and reached 80 points for the second time this season, having inflicted an 82-0 defeat on a hapless Hemel Stags side back in March.

The travelling Oxford supporters did at least have something to cheer through tries from Harrison Brough and Harvey Burnett, although they came after both teams had been reduced to 12 men after Jordan Siddon and Matty While were sent off following a mass brawl in the 45th minute.

Otherwise, this was pretty much a procession for Paul Crarey's team and, While's dismissal aside, proved the perfect way to warm up for the derby against Whitehaven which will decide who finishes second heading into the Kingstone Press League One Super Eights.

It will have also given the Raiders head coach plenty to ponder, with several of the club's younger players coming to the fore after being given an opportunity with a number of senior members of the squad rested.

The signs were ominous from early on and Barrow opened the scoring on their first possession with barely two minutes on the clock when Jamie Dallimore broke the line and sent Danny Morrow racing away to score.

Indeed, such was Barrow's dominance early on that aside from restarts, it would not be until the 19th minute that Oxford had possession of the ball after receiving it from the kick-off and playing out their first set of six, and the hosts duly made hay.

Brad Marwood was next to score, scything through the defence with a run from dummy-half and when Eze Harper set up Morrow to score his unconverted second with a silky show-and-go, it put the hosts 16 points clear after just eight minutes.

Then came a four-try blizt in the space of seven minutes which effectively ended the match as a contest.

Ollie Wilkes and Dan Toal moved the ball quickly to send Dallimore over for the first, followed by Shane Toal streaking down the right wing for an unconverted score in the corner.

Then Joe Bullock set up the elder Toal brother for a try and Ryan Johnston - playing at full-back in place of the rested Ryan Fieldhouse - got in on the act as well.

Harper took over after this by running in a hat-trick of tries and the first came after the ball was worked along the line from a tap-penalty.

The second was perhaps the most impressive after the centre collected a chip-kick close to his own line and sprinted 95 metres to score.

This was followed by another from inside his own half, although just from 60 metres out this time and by now it seemed just to be a case of how many points the Raiders would win by.

Tempers boiled over five minutes into the second half when Siddon took exception to being held down in a tackle and threw a string of punches at Bradd Crellin, resulting in him being shown the red card and the same fate befalling While after he had come running in.

Winger Brough then managed to get Oxford on the board with an unconverted try in the corner three minutes later, followed by Burnett going over and converting his own score on 58 minutes.

This proved only to be a brief respite for the away side though and Brett Carter got Barrow back to scoring when he dashed from over 60 metres out to score under the posts.

Had Charnock and winger Toal not had tries ruled out for a knock-on and forward pass respectively the score could well have been even higher.

But there were further scores from Bullock, Wilkes and Tom Walker inside the final 10 minutes as the props powered their way through a tiring Oxford defence to put some more gloss on the final score.

MATCH STATS

BARROW RAIDERS

Ryan Johnston 7; Brett Carter 7, Jarrad Stack 7, Eze Harper 9, Shane Toal 7; Jamie Dallimore 7, Lewis Charnock 7; Joe Bullock 8, Brad Marwood 7, Ollie Wilkes 8, Danny Morrow 8, Bradd Crellin 7, Dan Toal 7. Interchange: Dan Abram 7, Matty While 6, Tom Walker 7, James Duerden 7.

OXFORD

Liam Kay; Kane Riley, Thomas Newbould, William Cooke, Harrison Brough; Callum Windley, Kieran Hyde; Stuart Biscomb, Casey Canterbury, Jonathon Payne, Jordan Siddons, Harvey Burnett, Thomas Alexander. Interchange: Francis Welsh, Marcus Brooker, Bradley Moules, Aaron Nicholson.

REFEREE

John McMullen.

SENT OFF

Barrow Raiders: Matty While (fighting, 45); Oxford: Jordan Siddons (fighting, 45).

RAIDERS STAR MAN

Eze Harper led the way for the hosts with a hat-trick and provided an assist as well to cap an impressive display in the centre.

PLAYBACK

2 – Morrow try, Charnock con (6-0); 6 – Marwood try, Charnock con (12-0); 8 – Morrow try (16-0); 12 – Dallimore try, Charnock con (22-0); 14 – S Toal try, Charnock con (28-0); 17 – D Toal try, Charnock con (34-0); 19 – Johnston try, Charnock con (40-0); 29 – Harper try (44-0); 34 – Harper try, Charnock con (50-0); 37 – Harper try, Charnock con (56-0); 48 – Brough try (56-4); 60 – Carter try, Charnock con (62-4); 64 – Wilkes try, Charnock con (68-10); 74 – Bullock try, Charnock con (74-10); 79 – Walker try, Charnock con (80-10).

ATTENDANCE

750.