Attractive Football? OR Hoof-Ball?

[The Tomahawk Kid]

Now Paul Cox has gone we might start to play fast free flowing football.
But maybe we might not win as many games playing that style.

What do we want?

A team that plays dazzling football but only win occasionally and finish mid-table?
OR
A team that plays 'Kick N Rush' but is in the chase for promotion?

Which team would you prefer to watch?

[mickmike wilson]

A combination of the 2 or what ever tactics better suit the day/oppo as long as its getting results....

[HenneysKnee]

Which one would get all these so called stay away fans back to Holker Street and boost the attendances?

[Forde]

Attractive football is the only thing that will get people to the Furness Building Society Stadium. Well that and the proposed improvements!

[Moonwatcher]

Attractive, expressive football every time for me. In my thirty-odd years as a supporter, creative and adventurous football has been the expected norm until relatively recently, and I believe the Barrow public would once more be engaged and excited by skillful, intelligent football, and more flamboyant players. To be honest, some of the football we have played under the last two regimes has resembled pub football, that only the hardcore fans will pay to watch. Whatever it is the Cassons are trying to achieve in the long term will not be achieved without engagement of the wider Furness public, and support in greater numbers. A better product will bring more people on board. You could argue that "hoof-ball" (I detest that phrase...) been successful, but has it really? I believe that teams who are effective playing predictable, percentage football, as we were for the first few months of last season, eventually get found out. By the second half of last season, other teams knew exactly what to expect from us, and had worked out how to counter it. Yes, you do need to be hard and physical at the level we play, but it needs to be combined with guile, intelligent tactics and skill if longer term success is to be achieved.

[pjdaly]

I was shocked by the recent Cox debacle. In line with the title of this thread I would obviously say Cox was very successful but it is true that I was rarely entertained by the "hoof-ball" his team produced, despite the relative success of finishing in our highest ever League position in our Non-League history last season. The irony is that I have seen two entertaining Barrow matches this season, the one on Saturday against Boreham Wood when we played some very good stuff and . . . the 3-0 win against Woking when Cox was still manager and we played a much more attractive brand of football. So, we will never know whether Cox would have kept up the success AND the brand of football we surprisingly displayed that day, just a matter of a few weeks ago. Of course, we could speculate but . . .

[tictactoe]

As said above, a mix of both. I personally prefer to watch good passing football.

[spirit of 1990]

I personally prefer to watch good passing football.

I'll go along with that Lisa.

Simply winning has been proven to not attract people back. Last Saturday (first half especially) was the first time for a long time I've actually enjoyed watching a game, I've enjoyed some results under Edmo & Coxy but very rarely felt entertained.

[Bluebarrowman]

Of course it's attractive football to be entertained, but whatever it takes to win games is fine by me.

It really is all about winning imo

[tictactoe]

I personally prefer to watch good passing football.

I'll go along with that Lisa.

Simply winning has been proven to not attract people back. Last Saturday (first half especially) was the first time for a long time I've actually enjoyed watching a game, I've enjoyed some results under Edmo & Coxy but very rarely felt entertained.

People I attended with on Saturday all said the same thing, we played well. The sending off changed how we had to play I suppose but it was good to watch. I don't think anything will attract people back to be honest, people get out of the habit of attending, and unless it is a big cup game, the crowds we get now will be the norm.

[Adam29]

Winning football.
Whether it be playing ugly tactics with the ball spending more time in the clouds than on the deck with a solitary goal coming via a goal line scramble and toe poked in from 2cms away or playing champagne football i couldn't care less. As a supporter you want your team to win doesnt matter how they win aslong as they do

[orpheus]

It was plainly obvious that there was something "afoot" last Saturday. The ball was played on the turf and not in the air. Think that it what the lads are begging to do.

[Middleton Nick]

Sometimes you need a bit of both but on saturday we played some football the like of which I have not seen for quite a while. We did the double over Lincoln last year with a mixture and look where they are.

[McMark]

Winning football.
Whether it be playing ugly tactics with the ball spending more time in the clouds than on the deck with a solitary goal coming via a goal line scramble and toe poked in from 2cms away or playing champagne football i couldn't care less. As a supporter you want your team to win doesnt matter how they win aslong as they do

Agree strongly. Also we as supporters choose to forget very easily!! Nobody can tell me that result at Bristol Rovers or that win at Tranmere weren't entertaining, Lincoln home and away also, and there were others.
Yes it was also dire at times against mainly the lesser teams in the league, but they have been our achilles heel year on year for some time now. Sometimes the players just don't turn up it happens at all levels of football no matter how well the manager prepares the team.
Team spirit, instilled confidence and player moral are the key things and I think we had that under our last manager and so far it looks like we still have managed to retain it in what is a transitional time for the club.
So I think you can safely say our mentality and DNA are still intact.

[blue nige]

I personally prefer to watch good passing football.

I'll go along with that Lisa.

Simply winning has been proven to not attract people back. Last Saturday (first half especially) was the first time for a long time I've actually enjoyed watching a game, I've enjoyed some results under Edmo & Coxy but very rarely felt entertained.

I agree Ian plus the fact that people at work said that if they knew that they would be entertained they wouldn't mind using up holidays (people on shifts ) but said they wouldn't do that with the way Paul Cox played (as we'll be reminded of next Tuesday! )