BARROW...2 RADCLIFFE BORO...0: BORO boss Kevin Glendon was left to rue a highly controversial refereeing decision that contributed to his side's defeat up in Cumbria on Saturday.

He was involved in a heated half-time exchange of words with the referee after he had awarded the home side a first half penalty.

And he had cause to feel aggrieved, after Mr Smith adjudged Terry Bowker to have fouled Mark Hume in the 27th minute.

"It was a scandalous, shocking decision," said Glendon.

"There were no appeals from either their players or supporters, it was just a clash of heads and I still don't know why he gave it."

It came after the two players went down in the box following a near-post free-kick from Barrow's Graham Anthony.

The decision sparked a furious reaction among Boro's players, but the Bluebird's Ian Arnold kept a cool head to slot past Danny Hurst.

The opening goal came moments after an angry exchange between both sets of players, following a heavy tackle on Barrow's Neil Campbell from Boro's John Foster.

But when calm had been restored it was Foster who was shown the only yellow card.

Those two incidents masked what was a poor first half, with both sides struggling to stamp any real authority on the game.

Boro's Josh Mitten was the first to have any real shot at goal, though his sliced effort sailed well wide in the opening minute.

From then on the game had no real pattern, and Boro had to wait until after the half hour for their next serious shot on goal.

That arrived from a well-worked short corner involving Richard Battersby and Tony Whealing in the 33rd minute.

Following a neat one-two with Whealing, Battersby cut into the box and forced a good block from Barrow keeper Simon Bishop.

Davey Luker, playing in his more accustomed midfield role, saw his header cleared off the line by Barrow's Lee Warren.

Then Simon Carden had a great opportunity to restore parity when he was allowed a clear run on goal.

But Bishop reacted quickly and raced off his line, forcing Carden to lift his shot wide of the post under pressure.

Boro emerged for the second half in search of an equaliser, but had Hurst to thank for keeping them in the game, producing a great fingertip save to deny Mark Hume.

But he could do nothing about Neil Campbell's 77th minute, stunning 25-yard volley. Following a long punt up field, Campbell waited for the ball to bounce and then unleashed an unstsoppable effort beyond Hurst to seal victory.

"The lads played well, they did everything I asked of them." said Glendon.

"Their second was a cracker but otherwise we really held them down and we can take a lot of positives from the game. We had a flurry of chances in the first half and overall played much, much better.

"I played Davey Luker in midfield for the first time and returned to a back three, and the lads looked happier with that.

"Overall it was not as difficult as I thought it would be. We managed to stifle them, it wasn't a classic game to watch but we went out with a plan and stuck to it.

"On another day and with another ref we might have come out of there with a point, or even three with a bit of luck."

BORO: Hurst, Battersby, Whealing, Kelly, Luker, Bowker, Spencer, Carden, Mitten, S.Foster, J.Foster. Subs: Redshaw (for Mitten, 68), Marginson (for Carden, 84), Wheatcroft (for Spencer, 86).