THERE was at least one person from the Furness peninsula who was able to celebrate at the final hooter last night, although unfortunately former Ulverston junior Will Maher was doing it as part of the Halifax team.

The prop is spending the season on loan at the West Yorkshire side from Super League outfit Castleford Tigers, and played a part in helping Fax bounce back from two consecutive losses with a 30-4 victory over Barrow Raiders in the Good Friday Betfred Championship game.

From a Raiders point-of-view, the coming game at home to Swinton Lions on Easter Monday is the important clash over the weekend, which led to head coach Paul Crarey resting several key players.

And an unfamiliar-looking Barrow side had little answer to Halifax, who gradually tightened their grip on the match as it went on, scoring four tries and being aided by the kicking of centre Steve Tyrer, who booted four conversions and added three penalties.

Raiders did manage a consolation try from Gene Ormsby, and the returns to action of Matty While and Matty Holmes were further positives. But they were cancelled out by injuries suffered to Brad Marwood, Alec Susino, Danny Morrow and Bradd Crellin, who are all doubts for Monday.

Barrow could hardly have asked for a better start to the game when the kick-off from Brett Carter – slotting in at full-back – was knocked on, giving the visitors superb field position to attack from. However, Raiders knocked on themselves to kill the attack.

Otherwise, there was little to choose between the teams for much of the opening 10 minutes as the wet weather made handling conditions difficult and players on both sided were guilty of coughing up possession.

However, Halifax’s first real spell of pressure eventually led to them scoring the opening try, coming from their patient approach led to them forcing the Raiders to concede two consecutive goal-line drops outs. That was eventually rewarded when a grubber kick from Ben Kaye caused confusion in the visiting defence, with Elliot Morris pouncing on the loose ball over the try-line and Tyrer kicking the conversion.

Barrow struggled to get a foothold for several minutes after this, and Halifax’s second try followed on 18 minutes.

Again, Fax kept going through the processes and a kick to the corner from Scott Murrell saw Tyrer beat Shane Toal in the battle for the high ball, before turning to dot down in the corner and convert his own try.

Raiders were able to rally after this though, turning the screw as Halifax came up with errors of their own and gaining three repeat sets deep in the home 20-metre zone, leading to Ryan Fieldhouse finding Ormsby, who darted through a gap from 10 metres out for an unconverted try.

The kicking of Tyrer kept the scoreboard ticking over in Fax’s favour prior to the half-time hooter sounding.

The first came when Barrow were caught offside and the second when Danny Morrow was penalised as the home side were threatening to get a roll on.

That pushed Halifax’s lead out 16-4 at half-time, and they went close to adding to that within a minute of the restart when a kick from Dean Parata was charged down by Shane Grady, only for the hosts to throw the ball into touch and give possession back to Raiders.

But Tyrer’s deadly-accurate kicking resulted in another two points to the Halifax tally on 51 minutes and that was the cue for them to start to the turn the screw, starving Barrow of the ball and dominating the territory.

Conversley, when the Raiders did get their hands on the ball they were unable to do anything with it

They started to concede penalties, resulting in Sion Jone grabbing Fax’s third converted try on 54 minutes.

And it was game over on 69 minutes when Fieldhouse threw an interception in his own half, it led to Ed Barber sending winger Conor McGrath racing away for a fourth converted try, with Halifax comfortably seeing out the remaining minutes.

MATCH STATS

Halifax: Will Sharp; Conor McGrath, Steve Tyrer, Ed Barber, James Saltonstall; Scott Murrell, Ben Johnston; Elliot Morris, Ben Kaye, Will Maher, Chester Butler, Shane Grady, Jacob Fairbank.

Interchange: Brandon Moore, Sion Jones, Brandon Douglas, Dan Fleming.

Barrow Raiders: Brett Carter 8; Shane Toal 6, Declan Hulme 7, Gene Ormsby 7, Tom Loxam 6; Ryan Fieldhouse 6, Brad Marwood 7; Tom Walker 7, Dean Parata 7, Alec Susino 7, Danny Morrow 7, Matty Holmes 7, Matty While 7.

Interchange: Nathan Mossop 7, Bradd Crellin 6, Ryan Duffy 6, Glenn Riley 7.

Referee: Liam Staveley.

Attendance: 1,298.

Raiders star man: Brett Carter: Slotted in seamlessly at full-back and got Barrow out of trouble with some great carries from kicks.

PLAYBACK

14 MINUTES: Elliot Morris try, Steve Tyrer conversion, 6-0.

18 MINUTES: Tyrer try and conversion, 12-0.

25 MINUTES: Gene Ormsby try, 12-4.

33 MINUTES: Tyrer penalty, 14-4.

37 MINUTES: Tyrer penalty, 16-4.

50 MINUTES: Tyrer penalty, 18-4.

54 MINUTES: Sion Jones try, Tyrer conversion, 24-4.

69 MINUTES: Conor McGrath try, Tyrer conversion, 30-4.