Spennymoor boss Graeme Lee was cursing the brother of an England Lioness for his team’s FA Cup exit.
Wyll Stanway, brother of England international Georgia, pulled off a brilliant one-handed stop to deny Spennymoor striker Glen Taylor an early opener.
League Two Barrow survived the scare to overpower the National League North side 2-0 and deny them a second-round place for the first time in their history.
Lee said the outcome came down to three moments of quality in the game in front of 2,283 at Brewery Field in County Durham.
He said: “I can’t fault the lads, we limited Barrow to a few chances but they were clinical and maybe we switched off at the wrong time. Barrow will know they have been in a very tough afternoon.
“Nine times out of 10 the header goes in for Glen and I’ve just been swearing about their keeper in our dressing room because it was a fantastic save.
“But those are the moments the FA Cup is all about and unfortunately it just didn’t happen for us.
“The atmosphere was fantastic and we had to put on a performance against a quality side and we did that.
“We matched them and kept going to the end, which is pleasing. This is what we want at the Brewery Field every week. I thought it was great.”
The League Two side needed two well-taken goals from Elliot Newby and substitute Kane Hemmings, plus Stanway’s stunning save, to avoid an upset.
Barrow boss Andy Whing said: “We were OK but it’s all about the result in this competition and we got that thanks to two bits of real quality.
“The FA Cup is all about stories and we just wanted to be a little paragraph – not the headlines – and we’ve managed to do that.”
