IT took 105 minutes and several missed drop-goal attempts by both sides before the victor of yesterday's other Kingstone Press League One play-off final between Whitehaven and York City Knights was decided, but at Craven Park it was effectively all over bar the shouting after an hour.

A ruthless display from Barrow Raiders, helped in no small part by Jamie Dallimore's inspirational showing at stand-off, saw Newcastle Thunder vanquished 60-0 as the hosts cruised into the promotion decider for the second year in a row.

Unlike last year though, when they had to travel to Toulouse Olympique and back in a day, Barrow will be on their own turf, where it is hoped a bumper crowd will come to pack the stands as they take on county rivals Whitehaven in an all-Cumbria showdown for a place in the Championship.

That home advantage has been well and truly earned after the efforts of an at-times challenging season, and the fact Paul Crarey's men secured their final place in such a convincing manner was even more impressive given the enforced late changes they had to make to the squad.

Nathan Mossop had already been ruled out after failing a fitness test on Saturday morning, with Martin Aspinwall and Bradd Crellin then becoming unavailable after being afflicted with illness.

To make matters worse, Crellin's replacement Danny Morrow then picked up an ankle injury which forced him off with just over half-an-hour of the semi-final played and has left him in doubt for this week's final.

But any worries Crarey had were quickly dispelled as the depth in the squad showed, and late call-ups Brad Marwood and Matty While could hardly have done any better from the bench in what was their first appearances since the 80-10 win at home to Oxford on July 8.

Skipper Ollie Wilkes continued his impressive recent form too and Shane Toal – who had to pass another fitness test hours before kick-off prior to being picked – showed no lingering effects of the injury which forced him off against Keighley Cougars by scoring two tries.

Indeed, it may seem unfair to pick out just one player from a superb team performance, but Dallimore was at the heart of nearly everything Barrow did against Newcastle – capped with a 28-point haul.

That included two well-taken tries, along with a near-flawless kicking performance which saw him boot eight out of nine conversion attempts and land a penalty for good measure – not to mention his outstanding work in helping the Raiders nil their opponents.

And yet, it was Newcastle who had the better of the opening moments, including forcing a drop-out early on. But Barrow's first real opportunity of the match in the second minute led to them opening the scoring when Dallimore found Wilkes from dummy-half and the prop powered his way through the defence.

From there, the Raiders never looked back and a superb one-handed offload from Stack led to Toal grabbing his first try of the game out wide on 12 minutes, followed by Lewis Charnock sending half-back partner Dallimore racing through a gap in the Thunder defence six minutes later.

Newcastle did enjoy some good spells of possession after this, only for errors – both forced and unforced – to let them down. They were dealt a further blow on the stroke of half time too when a move from a scrum led to Brett Carter scoring an unconverted try in the corner.

Dallimore slotted over a penalty from 10 metres out eight minutes after the restart, followed by a superb flowing move involving Marwood and Wilkes being finished by Ryan Fieldhouse in the 50th minute.

Toal pulled down Charnock's kick to the corner for his second of the game and 22nd of the season three minutes later and Marwood burrowed over from close range for his first of the game. Then Charnock went from provider to scorer on 68 minutes after Carter set him up.

It was perhaps apt Dallimore's converted score took the Raiders past the half-century mark, with Marwood's second and a conversion from him putting the seal on the win. All eyes are now on the showdown with Whitehaven after they snatched a 21-20 win at home to York.

Barrow Raiders: Ryan Fieldhouse; Brett Carter, Eze Harper, Declan Hulme, Shane Toal; Jamie Dallimore, Lewis Charnock; Joe Bullock, Karl Ashall, Ollie Wilkes, Jarrad Stack, Danny Morrow, Dan Toal. Interchange: Brad Marwood, James Duerden, Tom Walker, Matty While.

Newcastle Thunder: Lewis Young; Dan Parker, Derrell Olpherts, Joe Brown, Alistair Blair; Thomas Shaw, Benn Hardcastle; Liam McAvoy, Evan Simons, Callum Bustin, Rhys Clarke, Harry Aldous, Jack Aldous. Interchange: Matthew Barron, Daniel Turland, Vincent Rennie, Aaron Teroi.

Referee: Greg Dolan.

Attendance: 1,090.