Unexpectedly Good Days Out

[Hadrian]

Ah, Frickley!

I miss Frickley so much.

I really should aim more carefully...

[ruins]

Cant recall the season but we went to Solihull and got smashed both on and off the pitch. Langy burnt my pubes, we broke the bog, sat outside that odd ski lodge in blazing sunshine and I think Reg stole a toilet seat? That was quite standard for away days then, football spoiled a good day out! Eastbourne sticks out for me. That was [SwearFilter] awesome in the pub, I have a picture on the wall of us all outside the pub.

[sanddevil-temp]

Worst away day - Frickley Athletic, 1984 either FA Cup or Trophy, can't remember. We were heading towards the NPL championship with Vic Halom at the helm, and a team full of great players. Frickey were (amazingly) a mid-table Conference outfit at the time, but we were gonna turn 'em over. Nothing went to plan - we were 4-0 down before we got off the bus, torn to shreds by their pacy wingers and despite a late rally we lost 5-2. We were given a lesson in attacking football. To add salt to the wound there were ugly scenes on the terraces, as a small group of JCL knuckle-draggers embarrassed the town. One to forget, but you never do....

Shocking day. I was at uni in Leeds at the time so thankfully not the most difficult for travel. I remember some middle aged Frickley supporter (ie probably my age now) stood behind me making all sorts of patronising comments about our performance. That and the trouble with some of our 'fans' just made me feel totally humiliated.

[HenneysKnee]

Fleetwood at home when we beat them 4v0 was incredible
Oxford away in the FA Cup

[PeeSee]

Stevenage Borough 1, Barrow 2.

No, not that one. Back in the 1998/99 season in the wake of the Vaughan abandonment of the club and the going into administration. Don't remember the exact date, but it must have been Feb/March. No-one really gave us much of a chance at Stevenage, they were top 6, we were struggling, and when they went one up, you'd think that would be about it. But no, though those were the Shane Westley days of, um, intensively direct football shall we say (you must remember launch-the-ball-into-the-far-corner-from-kickoff?), we actually replied with two well-worked goals - both very similar in the approach play, one, maybe both scored by (Ian?) Foster. Brilliant! I don't think I walked, I floated over all those concrete footbridges on the way back to the station, with a massive grin on my face.

Gave us hope that we could finish outside the bottom three - which, of course, we did, at Kidderminster on the final day; another brilliant away day, although we knew that the administration was pretty much certain to doom us to the NPL the following season.

Great shout, I was at that one, we absolutely mugged them. Not 100% sure but I think their scorer was Carl Alford, at the time the most expensive non league player.

[The Tomahawk Kid]

My faves were:

Woking - FA Trophy Quarter Final - early '80s


Bolton - FA Cup Round 3 1991

Their old stadium hosted a cracking game during which 3,000+ Barrow fans sang their hearts out in a roofless section of Burnden Park. The walk back to the Railway Station was a little 'hairy' but a certain section of our fans did us as proud on the streets as our team had done on the day...


Kidderminster - final day of the season - 1999

Superb atmosphere from around 350 traveling fans - who sang the theme tune from 'The Great Escape' throughout the game. Unfortunately, it wasn't to be. Although we retained our Conference status that day - we were thrown out of the league a few months later. I remember Shane Westley (Our Manager - at the time) shaking hands with us as we trooped out of their Clubhouse, thanking us all for our support. A lovely gesture!

[Steelworks End]

That Kidderminster game - and the result - meant that whatever happened in the corridors of power, we hadn't been relegated on the field. That was important; the players had the pride and fight in them to achieve that.

Apart from Westley, a considerable number of Kidderminster fans shook our hands and wished us well as the challenge for survival moved away from the pitch. Football fans of one club offering their support to us in our hour of need.

[frankums]

Who can forget Kettering 0 Barrow 4, with Cowps quickest goal of all time (3.55 seconds).... and I wasn't even there!

[Derek Bradley]

Having lived in London for nearly 30 years I've seen Barrow play ar all sorts of places. Welling was always fun midweek as a friend lived near the ground. Ebbsfleet was great - went wiith a lifelong Ebbsfleet fan - had no problems standing with the Barrow fans and at half time we walked around the ground -so much for segregation. Can't remember much about Wembley -1990 my memory stops at the pub at Euston after the match and in 2010 I was doing the Keswick 2 Barrow walk. Now I've moved back to Barrow, oddly enough the next time I'll see them is probably in the South of England.

[barrowaberdeen]

Ebbsfleet when Chadwick got a hat trick with the Dover fans was a cracking day out as was Eastbourne last game of season. We had a full bus IIRC plus loads on the train. I always regret missing Lewes..

[Ste Story]

Ebbsfleet away a few years ago was one of those unexpectedly good ones. 4-1 win away from home, Chadwick hattrick, met a large Dover contingent who stood and learnt all our songs before joining in themselves.

[paddy71]

Goole away in the late 80,s.top of the table clash,we won 2-0.then the fun started with the gooligans, ho ho.the late great ray Wilkie in the street trying to get us back on the coach lol

[The Tomahawk Kid]

Goole again! I don't know...

I remember when we played them in the FA Cup - late 70s/early 80s at Holker Street. They brought a contingent of 'Wannabes' who tried to spoil the day. We confronted their coach outside the Main Stand and I remember B** M***** getting on board. The shocks on their faces when they realised he was a extremely aggrieved 'Barrovian'
The driver had to step quickly in before the rest of us gate crashed...

Bloody Goole!

[geobarrovian]

Goole looks incredibly grim now, in the 21st century, god knows what it was like in the 1980s, by far and large one of the worst places that I have ever encountered.

[Lancaster Branch]

Goole play at the Victoria Pleasure Grounds. If anyone needs a clue as to how austere life was in Victorian times, they should visit this place.

*shudders at the memory*