BARROW RAIDERS got their revenge for their Northern Rail Cup defeat at the hands of Widnes last week by edging past the Vikings in a bruising encounter at Stobart Stadium.

The Raiders’ win was built upon an excellent first half in which they plundered 18 points at three well worked tries off the boot of impressive stand-off Jamie Rooney.

Widnes were up against it after 23 minutes as Barrow surged to an 18 point lead.

The task was made harder for Paul Cullen’s men when Rooney landed two penalty goals and although one knew that Widnes would hit back in the second half, Barrow just had enough in the tank to cling on after Richard Vakulis and Jim Gannon doubles gave them a fright late on.

It was also a pleasing day for their boss Steve McCormack who was under some pressure to get a win against his old employers after being dumped out the cup last week.

“It was a great effort and I’m obviously pleased with the three points,” McCormack said.

“Widnes have had the edge over us the last two times we played them and I thought we have put in a big effort to correct that. We have started really well and it was important to us to get off to a good start.

“We have a small squad and it’s a massive effort. Sometimes we have lacked in terms of taking things personally and the players took the defeat last week personally.”