Seriously how do we stay up ?

[HenneysKnee]

All this talk of beating Newport on the last day is wishful thinking.
We could conceivably be relegated with 3 games to go which would mean our window to get the required points is just 5 or 6 games. If we are still in it at that point then we can start thinking about Newport but we have to earn the right to go the full distance.
No pressure lads.

Adam summed it up perfectly on the social this week; if it goes down to the Newport game then great, if it doesn’t it won’t be because we are already safe it will be because we are already down

[mulholland]

I don’t see any evidence that we will start to win all of a sudden but you never know.

I suppose the time to debate this season will be when it has all over.

However if we do go out of the football league what has the club realistically achieved in the 6 years. Ok the ground is better but still the worst in the league, we are slightly better at extracting money on match days but it’s still hard work to spend money.

We’ve failed to employ staff in key positions - commercially very much behind other league 2 sides.

We can’t even throw some reserves on or academy players to give them a chance - we have no structure at the club whatsoever. These things pay for themselves over the years - selling on assets / getting more families and more people in the town interested in football and buying into the club.

Anyway maybe a debate for another day - we can still stop up so while there is still hope let’s see what we can do

The lack of youth teams/reserves is a fair point and yet another decision made at board level that has backfired. Even in the dark days when we were scrapping to even keep our NPL status we had a reserve set-up and a youth team. The lack of connection with the town and local community is pitiful. No wonder attendances are so poor.
Scrapping the youth set-up to prioritise our league status seems an extremely shortsighted decision now and did at the time to many on here.
Can only hope that once this awful season's over an appraisal takes place that concludes we need to re-engage with the youth of the town. Didn't the board also have the audacity to ban unaccompanied teenagers at one point from Holker Street. Another bizarre decision among the many unfortunately.
We need the best players locally to have aspirations to play for their home town club. We need a youth set-up for both boys and girls. We need to start acting like a football club whether we remain a football league one or not.

[Cokey]

The lack of youth teams/reserves is a fair point and yet another decision made at board level that has backfired. Even in the dark days when we were scrapping to even keep our NPL status we had a reserve set-up and a youth team. The lack of connection with the town and local community is pitiful. No wonder attendances are so poor.
Scrapping the youth set-up to prioritise our league status seems an extremely shortsighted decision now and did at the time to many on here.
Can only hope that once this awful season's over an appraisal takes place that concludes we need to re-engage with the youth of the town. Didn't the board also have the audacity to ban unaccompanied teenagers at one point from Holker Street. Another bizarre decision among the many unfortunately.
We need the best players locally to have aspirations to play for their home town club. We need a youth set-up for both boys and girls. We need to start acting like a football club whether we remain a football league one or not.

Totally agree. You only have to look at Bromley. Until recently, they were no bigger than us really (we had a higher average attendance than them last season), yet they have got youth teams and a ladies team too. Plus got their recruitment absolutely spot on, as showing now in the league table. Our journeys are polarising.

I've spoken to some lads locally, who I know manage/play local football, about Barrow AFC and they all have the same opinion that the club doesn't care, or doesn't seem to care, about local football. Whether that's right or wrong, I don't know, as I am not in that circle. I suspect it came from when the youth side was axed a number of years ago.

I do think this is an area that we need to improve on in the future though. If you were building an ideal club, from the ground up, you would most certainly have youth teams, with the intent that hopefully a number of talented lads would come through and make the first team.

[barrowaberdeen]

We do need to improve but there isn't half a whole queue of 'local footballers' with one gripe or another who like to put the boot in when things go wrong.

Or are very good at proposing spending money we don't have.

Quite a lot of that is warranted, but by no means all.

Imho

[Big E]

I don’t see any evidence that we will start to win all of a sudden but you never know.

I suppose the time to debate this season will be when it has all over.

However if we do go out of the football league what has the club realistically achieved in the 6 years. Ok the ground is better but still the worst in the league, we are slightly better at extracting money on match days but it’s still hard work to spend money.

We’ve failed to employ staff in key positions - commercially very much behind other league 2 sides.

We can’t even throw some reserves on or academy players to give them a chance - we have no structure at the club whatsoever. These things pay for themselves over the years - selling on assets / getting more families and more people in the town interested in football and buying into the club.

Anyway maybe a debate for another day - we can still stop up so while there is still hope let’s see what we can do

The lack of youth teams/reserves is a fair point and yet another decision made at board level that has backfired. Even in the dark days when we were scrapping to even keep our NPL status we had a reserve set-up and a youth team. The lack of connection with the town and local community is pitiful. No wonder attendances are so poor.
Scrapping the youth set-up to prioritise our league status seems an extremely shortsighted decision now and did at the time to many on here.
Can only hope that once this awful season's over an appraisal takes place that concludes we need to re-engage with the youth of the town. Didn't the board also have the audacity to ban unaccompanied teenagers at one point from Holker Street. Another bizarre decision among the many unfortunately.
We need the best players locally to have aspirations to play for their home town club. We need a youth set-up for both boys and girls. We need to start acting like a football club whether we remain a football league one or not.

Funded by who though?

Even Wild knew it wasn't viable based on what Oldham did. 250k minimum and it was full of kids from all over the country, same as every other academy. The cream of our local lads are playing at Lancaster, Wukkie and kendal etc, so miles away from supplying lads to our current 1st team set up (and I say that as a parent of a lad at that level).
A few more relegation and it might work though....

[Bingo]

I personally think these things paying for themselves over time with improved engagement higher attendances selling on players

Clubs playing step 9 have better infurstucure than we do.

We as a club do things half arsed and think small there is a lack of ambition. I know it’s not my money but 6 years in the football league and not a great deal to show for it and I don’t feel we would ever bonus back.

[SilverdaleBluebird]

I don’t see any evidence that we will start to win all of a sudden but you never know.

I suppose the time to debate this season will be when it has all over.

However if we do go out of the football league what has the club realistically achieved in the 6 years. Ok the ground is better but still the worst in the league, we are slightly better at extracting money on match days but it’s still hard work to spend money.

We’ve failed to employ staff in key positions - commercially very much behind other league 2 sides.

We can’t even throw some reserves on or academy players to give them a chance - we have no structure at the club whatsoever. These things pay for themselves over the years - selling on assets / getting more families and more people in the town interested in football and buying into the club.

Anyway maybe a debate for another day - we can still stop up so while there is still hope let’s see what we can do

The lack of youth teams/reserves is a fair point and yet another decision made at board level that has backfired. Even in the dark days when we were scrapping to even keep our NPL status we had a reserve set-up and a youth team. The lack of connection with the town and local community is pitiful. No wonder attendances are so poor.
Scrapping the youth set-up to prioritise our league status seems an extremely shortsighted decision now and did at the time to many on here.
Can only hope that once this awful season's over an appraisal takes place that concludes we need to re-engage with the youth of the town. Didn't the board also have the audacity to ban unaccompanied teenagers at one point from Holker Street. Another bizarre decision among the many unfortunately.
We need the best players locally to have aspirations to play for their home town club. We need a youth set-up for both boys and girls. We need to start acting like a football club whether we remain a football league one or not.

This is it for me, if we wanted to be a settled League Two club that’s sustainable (and aim higher) then they have to have a youth team, even if it’s just u-18’s.

I appreciate the cost is high, but if it’s done properly with local players from Barrow/South Cumbria/North Lancashire then at the very least you’re getting a player every couple of years in the first team and/or a saleable asset. Morecambe did this well pre-financial disaster.

It’s funny that living over in Silverdale, we’ve had a decent amount of community stuff come from Barrow (free tickets, resources) but everything on the football side ie training, coaching has been Morecambe. We’re a pretty small village but there are some decent young footballers I’m sure and that would be the case across Barrow and the Lakes. There’s potential I think.

Surely they can cultivate a network of local, or nearby clubs, like Holker Old Boys, Furness Rovers, Kendal Town, Milnthorpe et al where players could go on loan to or play against.

[mulholland]

The lack of youth teams/reserves is a fair point and yet another decision made at board level that has backfired. Even in the dark days when we were scrapping to even keep our NPL status we had a reserve set-up and a youth team. The lack of connection with the town and local community is pitiful. No wonder attendances are so poor.
Scrapping the youth set-up to prioritise our league status seems an extremely shortsighted decision now and did at the time to many on here.
Can only hope that once this awful season's over an appraisal takes place that concludes we need to re-engage with the youth of the town. Didn't the board also have the audacity to ban unaccompanied teenagers at one point from Holker Street. Another bizarre decision among the many unfortunately.
We need the best players locally to have aspirations to play for their home town club. We need a youth set-up for both boys and girls. We need to start acting like a football club whether we remain a football league one or not.

Funded by who though?

Even Wild knew it wasn't viable based on what Oldham did. 250k minimum and it was full of kids from all over the country, same as every other academy. The cream of our local lads are playing at Lancaster, Wukkie and kendal etc, so miles away from supplying lads to our current 1st team set up (and I say that as a parent of a lad at that level).
A few more relegation and it might work though....

Big E..if you'd read my original post it referred to our previous NPL status and the fact we had some resemblance of a reserve and youth set up even in our darkest days.
The local lads you mention may well have progressed further up the ladder than the likes of Kendal, Lancaster, Workington if they'd had a decent set-up locally in their formative years. Who knows.
As for funding, well I'm positive we could all name at least 2 players we signed back in the summer whose wages have been an absolute disaster for the club.
Disgraceful as the wages are this day and age, only one less wage would've more than covered a youth set-up.

[WillBAFC]

I can see us winning a maximum of two of the last 9 games. If we are to have any chance, tomorrow against Grimsby is a must win.

[Wintergreen]

Yep. Out of the bar 10:30 prompt, no lock-ins, no mini-bars.

[russell_anderson]

The lack of youth teams/reserves is a fair point and yet another decision made at board level that has backfired. Even in the dark days when we were scrapping to even keep our NPL status we had a reserve set-up and a youth team. The lack of connection with the town and local community is pitiful. No wonder attendances are so poor.
Scrapping the youth set-up to prioritise our league status seems an extremely shortsighted decision now and did at the time to many on here.
Can only hope that once this awful season's over an appraisal takes place that concludes we need to re-engage with the youth of the town. Didn't the board also have the audacity to ban unaccompanied teenagers at one point from Holker Street. Another bizarre decision among the many unfortunately.
We need the best players locally to have aspirations to play for their home town club. We need a youth set-up for both boys and girls. We need to start acting like a football club whether we remain a football league one or not.

Totally agree. You only have to look at Bromley. Until recently, they were no bigger than us really (we had a higher average attendance than them last season), yet they have got youth teams and a ladies team too. Plus got their recruitment absolutely spot on, as showing now in the league table. Our journeys are polarising.

I've spoken to some lads locally, who I know manage/play local football, about Barrow AFC and they all have the same opinion that the club doesn't care, or doesn't seem to care, about local football. Whether that's right or wrong, I don't know, as I am not in that circle. I suspect it came from when the youth side was axed a number of years ago.

I do think this is an area that we need to improve on in the future though. If you were building an ideal club, from the ground up, you would most certainly have youth teams, with the intent that hopefully a number of talented lads would come through and make the first team.

I'd say, the reason Bromley and similar clubs like Barnet are more successful than a club like Barrow is purely down to the fact that the pool of talent in the wider London area is huge whereas the pool of talent available to Barrow is very small. London and other large cities have a huge advantage over clubs in small provincial towns because there are so many players who play at lower EFL level who can join a club without moving home.

[jeff1966]

Considering the title of this post its certainly gone off on a tangent. Cross that bridge at end of season. Despite them being top it wouldn’t be that mad to turn Bromley over. Beat Walsall and Oldham at home, also not massively beyond the realms. MK and Cambridge we can write off, anything’s a bonus. The others Barnet and Grimsby away and chesterfield at home wouldn’t also be a major shock to pick up points. The leagues poor and we don’t need reminding we are the poorest but it’s far from over, least wait till Bromley put 4 into us next Saturday for that

[Barrow afc 2018]

Considering the title of this post its certainly gone off on a tangent. Cross that bridge at end of season. Despite them being top it wouldn’t be that mad to turn Bromley over. Beat Walsall and Oldham at home, also not massively beyond the realms. MK and Cambridge we can write off, anything’s a bonus. The others Barnet and Grimsby away and chesterfield at home wouldn’t also be a major shock to pick up points. The leagues poor and we don’t need reminding we are the poorest but it’s far from over, least wait till Bromley put 4 into us next Saturday for that

Good shout Jeff anything is possible until it’s impossible. The points are there to be won all we can do is back the lads as best we can.

[McMark]

Treat every game as a cup final, simple as that!

[Hitthebar22]

Considering the title of this post its certainly gone off on a tangent. Cross that bridge at end of season. Despite them being top it wouldn’t be that mad to turn Bromley over. Beat Walsall and Oldham at home, also not massively beyond the realms. MK and Cambridge we can write off, anything’s a bonus. The others Barnet and Grimsby away and chesterfield at home wouldn’t also be a major shock to pick up points. The leagues poor and we don’t need reminding we are the poorest but it’s far from over, least wait till Bromley put 4 into us next Saturday for that

Good shout Jeff anything is possible until it’s impossible. The points are there to be won all we can do is back the lads as best we can.

I agree with the above, but vital to our chances are how Newport, Crawley, Harrogate and even Tranmere get on in their games too.