Barrow 26 Keighley Cougars 18

COUGARS' faint play-off hopes were finally extinguished as they lost to in-form Raiders in their last away game of the season.

Keighley needed to win their final two games and hope results elsewhere went in their favour but defeat and York City Knights' win over London Skolars condemned them to another season in League One.

The Raiders opened the scoring after three minutes when Chris Hankinson stole the ball from Ritchie Hawkyard in a one-on-one tackle and offloaded to Eze Harper, who raced the length of the field to touch down.

And the home side thought they had extended their lead minutes later when Chris Fleming fought his way over despite the best attempts of Andy Gabriel to bring him down, but official Liam Moore ruled the effort out for a forward pass in the build-up.

Barrow did extend their lead in the 21st minute when, on the back of consecutive penalties, Nathan Mossop threw a late offload to Liam Harrison, who raced through a gap to score.

And after a continued spell of domination on the Cougars line, Barrow were over once more when Jamie Dallimore threw a no-look reverse offload to full-back Ryan Fieldhouse, who dove over next to the posts.

Cougars' best chance of the first half came in the final minute of the 40 when Gabriel picked Will Milner’s kick out of the air, only for the Raiders defence to hold Danny Lawton out short of the line.

Keighley did get on the scoreboard ten minutes into the second half when, after a period of sustained pressure, Ritchie Hawkyard threw himself over the line, taking a knock from a knee in the process.

But after Cougars spilled the kick-off, they were penalised for interference at the play-the-ball on the Raiders line and Hankinson opted to take the two points on offer.

Barrow secured the two points with 15 minutes remaining when, after the ball came loose, they were awarded a free play and the ball went through quick hands to Anthony Bate, who scored from close range.

Cougars had the final say of the afternoon, however, as an off-the-ball incident between Charlie Martin and Cameron Pitman caused a distraction to allow Milner to race 30 metres unchallenged for his first try for the club.

And on the hooter, James Feather restored some pride for Paul March’s side as, from the play-the-ball, he saw space to go in under the posts.