Forest Green suffered a shock 4-0 defeat away to struggling Barrow on Friday.

Goals from Joe Grayson, John Rooney, Matt Platt and Aaron Amadi-Holloway put a major dent into Rovers’ title bid.

Rob Edwards’ side saw their lead at the summit cut to just two points after Exeter’s win earlier in the day.

Defender Grayson got the Bank Holiday show up and running with his first goal since September in the fifth minute.

Veteran striker Rooney was frustrated as his free-kick hit a post, but he made no mistake seven minutes before half-time as he added a second from Amadi-Holloway’s cut-back.

Paul Farman produced a couple of fine saves to keep the hosts’ lead intact.

Platt powered home a header eight minutes into the second half before Amadi-Holloway nodded home in stoppage time.

Rob Edwards was left bitterly frustrated.

He said: “It was a difficult day for us. It wasn’t a good day for us.

“I take nothing away from Barrow. We’ve been very honest when we’ve lost games of football this season if the opposition have been better than us so congratulations to Barrow. They were better than us today.

“The frustrating thing for us was they won too many first and second balls.

“To concede three set pieces when we’ve conceded two all season is another big frustration for us.

“If you look at the actual result you’d say it was a freak result. But as a performance they were ruthless and full credit to them.

“We have to draw a line under it very quickly and react properly to that."

Rovers host Oldham this afternoon and, despite Friday's thrashing, could have their promotion confirmed. They would need to win with Northampton and Bristol Rovers both dropping points, against Harrogate and Port Vale respectively, and Mansfield losing to Carlisle.

“It will be a similar game on Monday against another team fighting for their lives," said Edwards.

“They will be up for it and we will have to be up for it too.”