Barrow Raiders came from behind late on to snatch a crucial 20-18 victory over Swinton Lions in Round 21 of the Betfred Championship.

The Raiders started the day one point ahead of the Lions and were forced to dig deep to put further breathing space between themselves and the automatic relegation places.

Two close-range finishes from hooker Aaron Smith inside the opening quarter saw the home side make a quick start at the Northern Competitions Stadium, but Swinton stayed within touching distance and responded through Rhys Williams.

The scoreline read 12-8 to the Raiders at the break, the boot of Ryan Shaw keeping them marginally in front heading into the final 40.

Swinton were quick to nudge themselves ahead after the restart, taking just five minutes of the second half to score as Gavin Rodden capitalised on an Andrew Bulman error and raced 50m to score.

It got better for the Lions when Jake Spedding touched down to make it 18-12. Crucially for the Raiders, Dan Abram failed to convert so there remained just six points in it.

An arm-wrestle second half continued as the two sides looked to build momentum. Then, with 12 minutes to go, Jarrad Stack crashed onto a short pass from Smith to score his 50th try in Barrow Raiders colours. Shaw made no mistake with his conversion to level the scores.

Inside the final 10 minutes, Swinton saw George Roby sent to the sin-bin for an off-the-ball hit on Brad Walker, and moments later, a penalty gave Shaw the chance to put the Raiders back ahead.

He duly obliged, and the Raiders did enough to see out their 20-18 lead and collect two important competition points as the run-in continues.

Next up is a trip to Featherstone Rovers on Sunday 1 September for Round 22 of the Championship season.

Tickets for that fixture can be bought here.

BARROW RAIDERS 20

Tries: Smith 2, Stack

Goals: Shaw 4

SWINTON LIONS 18

Tries: Williams, Rodden, Spedding

Goals: Abram 3

Post-match reaction

Hear from Raiders head coach Paul Crarey following Sunday’s impressive win.

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