The Way We Were

[Wintergreen]

Good piece by Phil Yelland in the latest HSN recalling the build up of events in 1999 which culminated in Barrow AFC ceasing to be for a while. They were traumatic times, but there was a sense of togetherness – the players, supporters and BoD that was very edifying and worth recalling with some pride in the face of adversity and overwhelming odds.

Thought they would have made a film of it by now with a cast something like this:

Brian Keen......Clint Eastwood
Tony Keen......Woody Harrelson
Russell Dodd....Christopher Biggins
Shane Westley..Harrison Ford
Mike Marsh......Julian Clary
Andy Mutch......Barry Tickle
Dave Higgins....Chuck Norris
Paul Jones.......Paul Jones
Eddie Johnston..Denzel Washington
SV.................Ray Winstone

[Zak]

#huh

[sempre contigo]

HAHA...

can someone post the bit from the HSN in here please

[A.B.]

#huh

This.

[Ste Story]

There ya go mangas:

Mid-December saw the club in a state of crisis with no obvious way out of
the financial challenges posed by the winding-up order. Indeed it was
difficult to expect players to play at their best when they were not getting
paid.

A 2-0 defeat at Kettering was compounded by the dismissal of both Paul Jones
and Lee O'Keeffe, and the decision to bring forward the New Year's Day game
at Holker Street against Southport as a result of the visitor's FA Cup
commitments might have brought a point in a 0-0 draw, but a gate of just
1191 was a disaster.

Pleasingly, the visit of Forest Green Rovers, the Saturday before Christmas,
might not have brought a bumper gate, but it did bring three points, thanks
to goals from Carl MacAuley and Marc Coates. The Boxing Day trip to
Southport saw a debut for former Runcorn winger Mike Smith in a game
dominated by the wind. The home side played with the wind in the first half
and failed to score. We played with the win in the second half and netted
four times without reply, with two goals for Ian Foster and one apiece from
Marc Coates and Karl Marginson.

The Christmas holiday game at Holker Street saw the visit of Northwich
Victoria and amid rumours that this might be the club's final game, a good
crowd of over 2000 turned out to watch a 1-0 defeat with Neil Morton
sent-off for the second time that season. It later emerged that after the
game, Owen Brown had been ordered to reduce the wage bill by mid-January.

January began with an ATS Trophy tie at Southport and more headaches for the
manager. The club's bank account had now been frozen and the players had not
been paid for December. The upshot was that Andy Mutch and Mark Seagraves
refused to play. In reality there was a possible issue that the players
might not have been insured.

Goalkeeper Tony Parks was injured, and with no other keeper registered for
the competition, Eddie Johnston kept goal. We lost 2-0. A crowd of over 2000
turned out for the inevitable home defeat by Rushden & Diamonds, and seven
days later, we defeated Welling United 2-1 at Holker Street to lift spirits,
thanks to goals from Marc Coates and Andy Mutch - their last goals for the
club.

The following hours and days produced a form of mayhem. Firstly, after the
Welling game, manager Brown was sacked because of poor results and the
team's poor disciplinary record. The truth was rather different - the real
issue was the fact that he had failed to reduce the budget. With the players
owed one month in wages from October, the reality was that they were
entitled to walk out. The writing was on the wall the previous week when
four of the Reserves team had signed Conference forms. Mike Marsh was first
to leave, and other followed quickly.

With liquidation days away, the club appointed a new management team -
former Lincoln City boss Shane Westley, whom few had heard of; his
assistant/consultant was John Beck famed for the unattractive long-ball game
played when he managed Cambridge United and at Preston. Their first game in
charge at Yeovil Town ended in a 1-0 defeat with a squad including several
players who were not fit, on the bench.

On Monday, January 25, the club was duly liquidated on the basis of the debt
due to Sterling Fabrications, supported by HMRC and former player Ged
Kielty. Jim Duckworth was appointed as liquidator and the club seemed to be
on borrowed time.

Ground-ownership issues were not at all clear and a local consortium of
businessmen, led by Brian Keen, started to try to rescue the club. The club
had to fulfil the home game with Kingstonian to stay in business and a crowd
of 1730 saw a much-changed line-up with players such as local striker Brian
Dawson and much-travelled midfielder Greg Challender featuring in a 1-0
defeat.

There was a two-week lull in the action as a result of a trip to Stevenage
being postponed; off-the-field, the frantic efforts to keep the club alive
continued and by the time Hayes visited Holker Street on February 13, the
team contained the unfamiliar names of Gary Lewis, Brian Southworth and Andy
Hayward. Another 1-0 defeat was heartbreaking.

Seven days later and a visit from Yeovil Town saw the crowd dip
dramatically, but the team were full of spirit and won 2-0 with goals from
Dawson and Hayward. At the end of the game, came the news that goalkeeper
Tony Parks was leaving to join Scarborough,

That saw a new face between the posts for the visit to Telford, Craig Davis,
and local defender Andy Hill made his debut, too. United included three
players who had just left Barrow - Mutch, MacAuley and Kevin Sandwith.
Barrow took a point thanks to a Paul Jones goal and a week later,
champions-elect Cheltenham Town could only take a point from Holker Street.

Survival was a day-to-day challenge and the consortium now formed Barrow AFC
(1999) Limited to run the club, and another battling performance at fellow
strugglers Farnborough Town saw us twice come from behind to earn a point,
with the three defenders who had stayed with the club during the turmoil -
Paul Jones, Dave Higgins and Eddie Johnston - outstanding. Suddenly there
was a real belief that we could avoid relegation.

That belief was shaken dramatically in the next two games as a second-half
defensive collapse saw a 3-0 defeat at Hereford United, but seven days
later, it was even worse as Kidderminster Harriers won 4-0 at Holker Street.
It could have been worse as that was the score after 47 minutes.

Easter Saturday brought the visit of Farnborough Town and only a win would
do. It was a truly awful game. We won 20 corners to the visitors' single
flag-kick, but the score was level as the game went into injury time when we
were awarded a penalty. Eddie Johnston stepped up to blast the ball home.
There was still time for Mark Dobie, in his third spell with the club, to
get sent off for a second yellow-card, but we hung on.

After the game, it was announced that assistant/consultant John Beck had
left the club by mutual agreement - the reality was that he was an
unaffordable luxury.

Two single-goal away defeats followed at Northwich and Hednesford, and it
was becoming clear that despite the best efforts of the team, the relegation
battle was going to go to the wire. Two more away games were going to be
crucial, and in the first at Forest Green Rovers a fit-again Ian Foster
grabbed an early goal which was enough to earn a battling point. However,
even the most ardent fan held out little hope of taking anything from a trip
to Stevenage, but not for the first time, the team surprised everyone.
Despite the dismissal of Lee Prior, who had rejoined the club weeks earlier,
Brian Dawson was inspirational as he netted the equaliser and then set up
the winner for Ian Foster.

With Farnborough and Leek Town already relegated, Barrow went into the final
home game of the season with Woking knowing that a win would bring safety
and relegate Welling United, all being well. So 2176 fans turned out
expecting to party; they were disappointed as the Surrey side won 1-0 to
take the relegation fight to the last game of the season.

That afternoon Barrow travelled to a Kidderminster Harriers side that had
already won 4-0 at Holker Street. Welling United travelled to champions
Cheltenham Town who had lost once at home all season. Both clubs went into
the game on 40 points; Barrow's goal difference was minus 24; United's minus
21. We needed a win - simple.

A huge crowd of fans travelled to Aggborough to watch the drama unfold. Just
12 minutes in, Andy Hayward gave us the lead and Ian Foster promptly doubled
it. Harriers pulled a goal back, but when the final whistle sounded we had
done as much as we could do. There were anxious minutes until the news came
though from Whaddon Road that Welling had managed a 0-0 draw. We were safe
and the celebrations commenced.

I wasn't at the game, but I remember celebrating with a glass or two in the
garden. Others did at least that, if not more. Ironically Ian Foster, who
netted the winning goal, was to join Kidderminster that summer, and seven of
the starting line-up never kicked a ball for Barrow again.

The reality was that a bunch of comparatively limited players, in terms of
ability, had proved that fighting spirit and will to win could achieve
results. That, however, was just one hurdle. Survival on the field was the
least of the problems.

At the Conference AGM the following month we were relegated - expelled
because we were in liquidation. It was not a huge surprise. The problem the
club, the new board and the supporters faced was that it was not apparent at
that stage which League would accept the club. It was to be a difficult
summer. How do you build a team when you don't know what League you will
play in?

Ironically, partly as a result of our challenges there is now automatic
relegation for certain insolvency events. What happened next? That is a
story in itself.

[HenneysKnee]

Still a shame Jonah never got a proper testamonial from us

[GTBLUE]

I was at the Kiddy game and even after all the years and god knows how many games I have seen that day was the most emotionally charged day of supporting Barrow AFC. God knows how many Barrow fans were there, but it seemed like half the town, but was more like 300 - 400.That was the day I turned grey in 90 odd mins. I remember hugging Brian Keen in floods of tears and thanking him for saving "my" club. Not realising what would happen next!!!!!!!

[bafctimmy]

I went down to Stevenage that season fearing the worst, especially when Prior was dismissed, but super Brian Dawson did the business, it was the game and result that gave us the belief that we could stay up and a little breathing space if we were to take something from the Woking home game, but we don't like making it easy for ourselves!

Kidderminster on that last game of the season was unreal, there was false scores going around indicating Cheltenham had scored against Welling and the atmosphere was incredible. To top it off I got Ian Foster's shirt, who scored the goal that kept us in the league until off the pitch difficulties dictated. A week later I was in the Argyle end at Brunton Park with some other Barrow supporters to see Jimmy Glass score THAT goal.

[Wilberforce Williams]

I went down to Stevenage that season fearing the worst, especially when Prior was dismissed, but super Brian Dawson did the business, it was the game and result that gave us the belief that we could stay up and a little breathing space if we were to take something from the Woking home game, but we don't like making it easy for ourselves!

Kidderminster on that last game of the season was unreal, there was false scores going around indicating Cheltenham had scored against Welling and the atmosphere was incredible. To top it off I got Ian Foster's shirt, who scored the goal that kept us in the league until off the pitch difficulties dictated. A week later I was in the Argyle end at Brunton Park with some other Barrow supporters to see Jimmy Glass score THAT goal.

Brian Dawson and Ian Foster. - great memories.
The spirit of Dawson was phenomenal.
And Foster's performance away at Woking early on in the season was class.

[The Tomahawk Kid]

I was at the Kiddy game and even after all the years and god knows how many games I have seen that day was the most emotionally charged day of supporting Barrow AFC. God knows how many Barrow fans were there, but it seemed like half the town, but was more like 300 - 400.That was the day I turned grey in 90 odd mins. I remember hugging Brian Keen in floods of tears and thanking him for saving "my" club. Not realising what would happen next!!!!!!!

Yeah, remember it well...all of us singing the theme tune of 'The Great Escape' throughout the game...but it wasn't to be

A nice touch was Shane Westley (Manager) shaking supporters hands and thanking us for coming as we left their club house