Barrow v Hartlepool match thread

[spirit of 1990]

Very enjoyable game, Zanzalla looks like he’s going to be a handful for defenders & Ellis really looks the part, Banks has taken a step up from last season and he’s going to be a big player for us this year. Gordon must be a nightmare to defend against…must be the fastest player we’ve ever had..!
If the first Hartlepool goal was a poor one to give away the second was horrendous.
Regarding the attendance, I said beforehand we’d be under 3k….and IMO that’s pretty poor no matter what the excuses, first proper game back, a decent sized visiting club, few people on holidays (as is usually the norm for this time of year) so should’ve really been well above 3k.

[munchen]

Great game today overcast by violence on Devonshire Road and in the Holker St end. Full on 1980s scrapping. Hopefully the CCTV will ban all the muppets smashing little kids with feet and fists. Idiots.

The Holker St End trouble looked to be handbags (kids) during the game, but what happened on Devonshire Road? Walked along there pre-match, but went the opposite way afterwards.

[liverpoolann]

Enjoyed game very tight nice to see 3 goal scorers for us.Think Ellis and Banks and White really playing well.Shame Sea took a knock to head like to have seen more of him.We had our usual idiots letting us down saw couple items thrown over the divider at away fans.Also the idiot pool fan waving and throwing the blue flare.Saw one fan escorted out during game .Hope club does not pay the penalty for idiots.Those identified should suffer a ban we don’t want them.Up by the tally ho scuffle broke out as I walked passed think pool fan being chased.Just a suggestion I know it reduces standing room a little but how about fitting another Perspex divider to the next set of uprights in holker end and keeping the gap as a sterile area between fans .I understand Rochdale took 600 to Harrogate match recently not enough stewards and more than one flare thrown on pitch.We don’t want that sort of aggro when they come.

[Mark Johnson]

Great game to watch that. Some poor defending. They looked a half decent team until they got their first goal and then they didn’t really threaten. For me I would go with white as man of the match, so comfortable on the ball and didn’t misplace a pass today. I think him and Banks will be a great midfield duo for us this season. Great to get 3pts on the board and looking forward to Tuesday night already!

[Ace]

“We didn’t play well”
“We didn’t defend well”
“Zanzala blew up after 5 minutes”
Refreshing honesty from the manager.
Good win though, a lot more to come from this side.

[Hitthebar22]

No one has mentioned Hutton post match. I'm not sure of his defensive qualities as didn't closely scrutinise that part of his game. He's obviously been told to hang on the right touch line. With the ball he always seem to take the right option. Either a short pass to a teammate, or a run taking on the opposition. He's fast fast, and crosses are usually very effective. Gordon's goal was as a result of great play initially by him.
Quality quality signing.

[pjdaly]

That was hard, frenetic, attritional. I don't know about the players but I know I am exhausted and need to go and lie down for a few days to recover; twas great entertainment however for the neutral – so entertaining in fact that the ref very kindly decided to allow an extra ten minutes for our delectation. I certainly wouldn't argue with Gordon as MOTM though I very much appreciated Tom White's attitude and performance. I like the fact that the manager is not running away from the fact that defensively we were not at it at times.

I thought we would have managed maybe 3,500 today (including their following as part of that) with it being the first non-restricted FL home match since April 24th 1972. I go back in my mind exactly 50 years, to Saturday August 14th 1971, when we played our first game of that fateful 71-72 season by recording a 0-1 defeat against Northampton. Off the top of my head the only goal came in the 26th minute of that match courtesy of Northampton's Harkin. And the opening phase of that game was a pantomime, with a dog running loose on the pitch for the first 10 or 15 minutes. The attendance was 2690, not far removed from today's mark. I suspect a good few of them might have been lured in to witness the curious spectacle of the great Harry Thomson making his debut in goals for us. Thomson was regarded by some as still being top-flight calibre but a few pranks here and there at his former higher echelon clubs meant he had to suffer the humiliation of settling for a humble 4th division side. Yet despite massive changes in society from half a century ago those attendances at Holker Street for the first home game of the season, 1971 and today, are found to be very similar. Paul Simon got it right – "after changes upon changes we are more or less the same" – even extending to the after-match boxing-bout outside the ground.

But at least some things were indeed different – it was a much more entertaining football match today than the one 50 years ago . . . AND WE WON!

[pjdaly]

Gordon must be a nightmare to defend against…must be the fastest player we’ve ever had..!

Ian, agreed, Gordon looks impressive. But the fastest player - - - I just wish you could have witnessed Roy McCarthy and the way he tore full-backs to shreds with his pace in the mid-to-late Sixties. For all the great service you give to Barrow Soccer, Ian, nobody deserves a Tardis more than you so that you can nip back and watch the spectacle!

[Jonty]

Don’t want to take away what has been a great day but the club will seriously need to reconsider that small away fan standing section. For a start there is no controlling the numbers in there and it could quite easily become overcrowded if those seated or standing in the corner decide to move into that area. Would not surprise me If they take out the standing area next to the away seats straight away and make it an out of use zone, with front to back segregation netting and netting from roof to the terrace. It’s the only thing which blighted an otherwise great day with fans back for a league game.

[Barra Marra]

Was the trouble outside as bad as made out here,? We hung around a bit to applaud the players and coaching staff but walked out of the popular side gate and around to Wilkie road via holker street. A lot of drunken Hartlepool fans and police but no trouble from any of them. Just a couple of idiots taking a tinkle against the HS end wall in full view of kids

[bamber678]

Great game today overcast by violence on Devonshire Road and in the Holker St end. Full on 1980s scrapping. Hopefully the CCTV will ban all the muppets smashing little kids with feet and fists. Idiots.

I’ll happily take 50 off the attendance for them idiots to never come back. Chanting and getting a reaction from away fans is part of it but charging past me and my 2 young children for violence and trying to take down and steal other barrow supporters flags off the back of the holker street end is just not right. Hopefully every single idiot gets at least a 3 year ban. Why does a big away following bring the morons out

[alvin]

Your not going to get more fans in when you've got sad people watching man u Leeds Liverpool on the same day .

[Ste Story]

Really enjoyed the game today, not felt like that at Holker Street for years. Poor gate in the circumstances but fantastic to see nearly 3000 for a league game and the noise in the ground with the new roof on the HSE was fantastic.

On the pitch plenty of excitement, can tell its a new team and not yet gelled given the dreadful goals we conceded, but we looked comfortable on the ball and ambitious as a team. Plenty to build on there.

Was talking to a few others today about some of our opposition from maybe 10 years ago... The likes of Kettering and Tamworth who were similar levels to us and had similar gates etc. Today Tamworth played in front of 400 odd fans as they got beat 3-0 by Royston Town, while we won in the Football League in front of nearly 3000.

Been a hell of a journey in the last few years, and great to enjoy the fruits of all the work and ambition since then!

[Middleton Nick]

It was a Hartlepool flag in their end. Became a tug of war over the divider. Hopefully CCTV will sort it out and the tossers throwing the objects into the visiting fans.

[kenny lowe fan club]

Regarding the attendance. If Covid hadn't have happened and this was our 1st game back in the football league, todays attendance would have been massive but things have changed somewhat, quite a lot of our regular supporters that stand near me have just not returned. These are people that have been attending for years. They are older people that are probably concerned about thieir health or have lost confidence in going out. So if this is happening in all parts of the ground it is a lot of missing regulars

Also we had a really poor season last year and lost our 1st game this season so it is a matter of buliding up the interest in the town again which will only come with results. I also believe and I said this from the beginning that not being able to buy a ticket with cash on matchday would have an effect and I rest my case.