BARROW 2, CHELTENHAM TOWN 1

COMETH the hour, cometh the man. Supersub Andy Dallas broke his Barrow duck at the perfect time as he fired the club back to winning ways.

It had been a tough ten days in the Bluebirds’ camp with three defeats on the spin. They were dumped out of the Carabao Cup at Premier League Chelsea in a glamour tie before back-to-back league defeats away at Gillingham and Doncaster.

That was coupled with a mini crisis as keeper Paul Farman and captain Niall Canavan joined the injured list for the foreseeable future.

But after clocking up the miles, Stephen Clemence’s side made the most of being back on home soil as they extended their unbroken league run at Holker Street to six games. And they did it the hard way as they came from behind after Ryan Bowman’s opener on the stroke of half time.

Towering front man Emile Acquah ended his seven-game goal drought with a header just after the break before Dallas’s fine 85th-minute strike secured a welcome three points as the Cumbrian club returned to the top three.

Clemence made three changes from the side who lost at the Keepmoat last time out.

Kian Spence overcame the recent illness which had ruled him out of the last two league games, whilst Leicester loanee Chris Popov made his full home debut and Rory Feely returned.

Will Stanway was tested early on as Tom Pett struck a speculative effort straight at the Bluebirds’ stopper.

Stanway almost got caught after making a mistake, but the keeper recovered well to stop Bowman from opening the scoring.

The visitors continued to threaten as Joel Colwill raced down the right. His cross was only half cleared to Pett, who thankfully blasted a volley wide from the edge of the box.

Barrow came close to breaking the deadlock on the half-hour mark as Spence beat Robins’ stopper Owen Evans to Ben Jackson’s cross as he nodded agonisingly wide.

The visitors took the lead just before the break. Stanway produced a good save to keep out Ethon Archer’s venomous strike and the rebound fell Kindly to Bowman, who emphatically smashed home his second goal in as many games.

Going behind in the 41st minute undoubtedly changed Clemence’s half-time team-talk.

And whatever he said worked wonders as Acquah levelled mere minutes after the restart.

It was a coolly-taken header as he flicked Elliot Newby’s front-post cross into the bottom corner.

The momentum was firmly in the hosts’ favour after the equaliser and they upped the ante with the full force of the Holker Street faithful behind them.

Popov could only fire over the bar after Spence’s expert low cross found the youngster at the back post.

Moments later, another Newby delivery caused an opening as Sam Foley nodded straight at the grateful Evans.

Dallas stole the spoils five minutes from time with a brilliant poacher’s finish. As he has so often this season, Jackson delivered a brilliant ball into the box, which the striker fired into the bottom corner first time.