I'm glad you said that because it's the first time I've seen Barrow live this season and I was expecting great things. However, the point you make about the pitch is spot on. I didn't know Bromley had a 3G pitch or I wouldn't have gone because I've seen Barrow 3 times at Sutton and those pitches make football a complete farce and IMO should not be allowed in the professional game. If you add in the strong wind today then the chances of getting much entertainment was pretty low! When the teams came out my son said to me that it looked like a junior team against a senior team the difference in height and size of the teams was so enormous. In fact, after the first Bromley corner we agreed that every set piece would be a problem.
Bromley were clueless in football terms banging almost everything into touch or lumping up the pitch and the first half was a complete non-event as Barrow played good football but in their own half but did absolutely nothing in Bromley's half other than hitting passes which with the aid of the wind and the 3G surface ran too far. I thought the second half was much better as Barrow started to play well in the Bromley half as well as their own half. Unfortunately the good play generally stopped when we reached their penalty area. I thought Hindle, who has impressed me when watched the highlights video, was very poor and Smith was non-existent. A lot of this could probably be put down to the pitch, though. In spite of not playing very well, Barrow much have had 70 to 80% of possession and were clearly trying to play much better football than Bromley. The new guy looked lightweight in the first half but scored a wonder goal in the second half which seemed to give him confidence and was the main danger to Bromley in the second half.
I'm surprised at the criticism of Jones who I thought was Barrow's outstanding player with Rooney and Taylor not far behind. Wilson also played well after coming on and had an extra bit of height that Granite lacked. I thought Firth looked solid and couldn't be blamed for either of the goals. If Barrow could get another central defender and striker with some physical presence then they could trouble most teams but I fear they will struggle in a lot of matches in this league purely because they won't be able to defend set pieces. It's O.K. saying they should be able to do it but it's not that easy if you have 3 or 4 players who are half a foot taller than your defenders! However, I've seen enough iin one game to be very confident that Barrow won't struggle this season and I like the way the manager has got them trying to pass the ball.
