RADCLIFFE BORO ... 2, BARROW ... 3 By MARC HIGGINSON: RADCLIFFE Boro slipped to defeat against Barrow on Tuesday night in an entertaining encounter at Stainton Park.

Boro had taken an early lead but found themselves having to haul themselves back from 2-1 down before Michael Rankine snatched Barrow's winner.

As ever, they produced fine fare for their strong support in the stands but couldn't quite impose their footballing game on a strong and experienced Barrow side.

Radcliffe were soon into their stride and could have been two or three goals up within the first twenty minutes as they sought to get amongst their more illustrious opponents.

However, Barrow managed to limit Boro to Simon Carden's strike on eleven minutes after good work from Neill Hardy and Eamonn Elliott.

Hardy ran at the worried Barrow defence before chipping the ball to Elliott on the edge of the penalty area. The little midfielder's flick found Carden, who fashioned himself an opening before finding the bottom corner to leave Barrow keeper Simon Bishop with no chance.

Hardy had himself gone close just a minute earlier following excellent work on the wing from the impressive Richard Battersby.

Last week's two goal hero Chris Denham forced Bishop into a fine double save as Barrow struggled to cope with the glorious pass and move football on show from Kevin Glendon's men.

As the half progressed, Barrow became cute to the home side's play and started to show why they are many pundits favourites for promotion this season.

Rankine missed two good chances as Barrow tried to exploit a Boro rearguard that has now conceded 18 goals in the league.

On the stroke of half-time, Barrow restored parity after the Boro defence failed to clear and Gavin Knight was on hand to send the large travelling contingent into the interval happy.

The fit-again Gary Sampson replaced Elliott at the interval as the home side fought to restore their advantage.

Jody Banim wasted a free-kick after Denham had been bundled over on the edge of the area before Carden fired just over after excellent build-up play involving Karl Marginson and Battersby.

Steve Spencer replaced the ineffective Denham as Glendon tried to get Boro a foothold in the midfield area.

With 25 minutes of the half gone, Michael Oliver forced Danny Hurst into a save and the resulting corner was pounced on by James Catterill as the Boro defence failed to clear once more.

The scores were level again just three minutes later when a good run and cross from Tony Whealing was headed home by the unmarked Banim for his second goal in two games.

The joy was short-lived as Rankine made amends for his earlier misses with the winning strike on 80 minutes.

Richard Landon was thrown on in an attempt to rescue a point but Hardy's late effort went wide to leave Barrow the joyous victors.

Manager Glendon was pleased with his charges despite the result: "I thought we were bright and sharp and we could have been two or three up in the first twenty minutes," he said.

"We then lost our way a little bit and we conceded some sloppy goals. Barrow stopped us playing our normal game and we struggled to compete from there.

"But, credit to Barrow. Teams will try and stop us playing like they did.

"We conceded some more goals from set-pieces and we would like some clean sheets in an ideal world. However, I think we are prone to conceding with the way we play," he added.

Glendon believes he needs two or three more players of Conference standard to press on but admits the club have little money.