Luke Foster earned Oxford United a point following Barrow's Jon Shaw giving the home side the lead as the U's battled the wind in the opener before failing to take the initiative in the second to settle for a share of the spoils.
Chris Wilder's side looked to continue their impressive form as they looked to take all three points from their less illustrious opponents. Last seasons fixture saw United crash 3-0 on the opening day of the season which saw James Clarke dismissed for an ugly challenge and keeper Ben Hinchliffe and
defender Chris Willmott produce a string of howlers to cost United the game. United this time around were in different spirits leading the table by 8 points and with no new injury worries looked favourites to take all 3 points. Ryan Clarke had been passed fit snubbing previous doubts over worries over an elbow problem picked up during pre-season was given the unduly task of leading United's back line against a strong wind likely to see Barrow bomb the U's penalty area with a flurry of efforts.
The first 15 minutes produced no chances other than the odd wind assisted long range effort until Adam Chapman created the visitors first opportunity a long throw caught the home side cold for the ball to fall to the U's main man Constable. Constable swivelled before managed to dig a shot hard at home keeper Stuart Tomlinson who did well to parry above himself to deny United's top scorer.
Barrow's unfortunate luck saw them attack fiercely in the first half due to their wind tunnel Esq. ground and it proved dividends as they took the lead through Jon Shaw. The build up was decent enough as the ball fell to Shaw via a deflection then struck only for the ball to knock the right hand post roll along to hit the other post and agonisingly roll behind the line into Ryan Clarkes goal to put the home side in front.
United weren't daunted by the task in hand and they came close to hitting back on 36 Cook sliding Matt Green one on one with Tomlinson only for the Barrow stopper to smother at the feet of Green. Just a minute later and the pressure told
The second half was much of the same, Barrow possibly wishing they had made more of the conditions while they had the upper hand although United had much the better of the play with the conditions against them and soon they had the advantage on their side. Constables effort after 60 deflected wide off a Barrow heel to skim off wide. Although Wilder's side created few clear cut chances Barrow were finding United increasingly difficult to contain and they almost crumbled on 85 Constable hammered an effort only to be denied by a goal saving effort from Barrow defender Bond and secondly with just seconds to play Constables sheer determination found himself with only defender and keeper who both committed then lobbed the ball only to bounce of the bar to earn both sides a share of the points. 
