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Barrow mustered a nil-nil draw against bottom-ranked Oldham Athletic at Holker Street in Thursday's League Two action.
The draw came at the wrong time for Mark Cooper's men as they struggle to wriggle out of the relegation battle. This demoted them to 19th in the League Two table, just two points off 21st placed Stevenage. Both Crawley Town and Bristol Rovers are ahead of them despite having played fewer games.
Barrow's life in Football League
Despite earning promotion only at the start of the season, Barrow performed better than expected, picking up eight points from their opening six games. They negotiated their League Two fixtures pretty well until November.
The decline began following a draw at Carlisle. They failed to pick up a single point in November after that fixture. Despite picking up a win against Swindon earlier in December, they failed to make the most out of their recent outings, including in Thursday's game against Oldham Athletic.
Golden opportunity missed
Barrow struggled early as Oldham pressed for an early lead. At the 10th minute mark, Oldham Athletic's Davis Keillor-Dunn had a go from distance only for the Bluebirds keeper to deflect it with a brilliant one-hand.
Ten minutes later, Oldham again came close to Barrow's goal only for Keillor-Dunn to miss a flying cross into the box.
Jamie Hoffcut also came close in the dying minutes of the first-half to give Oldham the lead.
Despite being outplayed in the first half, Barrow returned with a renewed vigor after the break. Robbie Gotts's free-kick on the hour-mark narrowly missed the goal, hitting the crossbar. It was perhaps Barrow's best chance to pull off a win.
Nonetheless, it ended in a stalemate.
Daunting fixtures and battle for survival
Barrow's failure to pick up points against Oldham has meant the club have picked up just four points from their last five games. But what is most daunting for their survival hopes is the teams they are to face early in the new year.
First up are Bradford City, who are unbeaten in their last three league outings. Following that, Barrow will visit the Community Stadium to play fellow strugglers Colchester United, who have played two fewer games than Barrow. Things will only get tough as they host Mansfield Town and Gary Bowyer's Salford City afterwards.
Barrow's recent run of results has seriously affected their hopes for survival and they will hope for a better second half of the season.
