Our best manager/managers

[Scott5]

A worthy mention to Kenny Lowe, he came in when there was no team and very nearly no club, we started a few weeks into the season as the Unibond league and Duncan Bayley didn't want to accept us and were playing catch up.
As others have said he had a solid first season which wasn't even a full one, brought in some good players the likes of Micky Waller and Nicky Peverell and a few ex pros in there that played good football. Bullimore, Anthony, Gaughan. His second season we were up towards the top and but for a bankrolled Accrington Stanley would've won the title in 2003. "Not bad for a bunch of fat lads!"!
Was a shame when he left for Oz and Lee Turnbull never really stepped up as manager from assistant.

Ian Evatt will go down as one of the best for doing what probably no one thought was possible and maybe COVID-19 did us a favour but the football last season and his professionalism transformed the club, a real shame he was persuaded away when he was so soon after success as the next season might've been very different had he stayed.

Also though a big mention to Rob Kelly, might only have been caretaker manager but without him we'd have gone down after that first season back in the EFL and who knows then what would've happened. He took a team with some very limited players, loan players and one lacking in belief to fight and I can't remember his points per game average but it was ridiculous compared to under Dunn and then Jolley.

A mention also to Dave Bayliss and Darren Sheridan who transformed a team third bottom in November? to almost beating Bournemouth away in the FA cup, going on a long unbeaten run and getting promotion via the play offs. Add to that a couple of FA cup runs and FA trophy win before it ended.

[Olderbarrowfan79+]

Wilkie,evitt,daz & dave,lowe dont think anyone else comes close in my era

[blue nige]

Whoever tries to manage Barrow it's always a difficult job ,first it's getting players who want / willing to travel, then it's down to budgets, we've only a small fan base and without rich owners or a lucrative sponsorship deal we'll always be up against it, but somehow we do get gems, like Adam Murray he gets us ( like Wild) and we get him !

[Scott5]

Whoever tries to manage Barrow it's always a difficult job ,first it's getting players who want / willing to travel, then it's down to budgets, we've only a small fan base and without rich owners or a lucrative sponsorship deal we'll always be up against it, but somehow we do get gems, like Adam Murray he gets us ( like Wild) and we get him !

I think Pete Wild also deserves a mention. Might only have been two years here and the last 3/4 months of his reign we tailed off dramatically but, he gave us the best two years of our six back in the EFL reign and some memorable days out beating Bradford, Swindon, Crewe away, the Stockport top of the table clash at Christmas three years ago (doesn't seem that long).
He brought some good players in and despite what some say we did play some decent football under him, high tempo and pressing and counter attacking and playing to our strengths. Had he stayed who knows what would've happened that next season but I'm sure it wouldn't have been the disaster that it was aside from a handful of results under Clemence and then Whing at the end.

Murray I wasn't convinced by, hadn't really managed a lot at this level for some time and his recruitment brought a lot of questions although we know he was and still is to a point, hampered by some of last seasons expensive mistakes. It may not be the purest teams in terms of football but they fight, work hard and for each other, have a very good spirit amongst themselves and with the fans. They get under the skin of the opposition players and fans and have that nasty wind up streak that we've lacked for a long time. Maybe we underestimated just how big a job it was for Murray to turn it around after almost two years of mistakes and pretty awful football, the whole club was on a down.
I thought he was done after Solihull it was awful and I struggled to see much optimism but he's brought a few footballers in to add to his big, strong players and they're getting results. If he did the unthinkable and got us back up it would arguably be a bigger achievement than when Evatt did and on current form, why not.

[pjdaly]

Also though a big mention to Rob Kelly, might only have been caretaker manager but without him we'd have gone down after that first season back in the EFL and who knows then what would've happened. He took a team with some very limited players, loan players and one lacking in belief to fight and I can't remember his points per game average but it was ridiculous compared to under Dunn and then Jolley.

Okay, Scott5, I can confirm that Rob Kelly's points per game average was indeed RIDICULOUS. At the risk of repeating myself on these pages (but why not when it's a tale of such jaw-dropping proportions?) I can tell you that when Rob took the reins we had 26 points from 30 games. We were doomed, doomed I tell you. After another 10 games - ie 40 played - we were on 46 points. Do the arithmetic. That's 20 points from 10 games. That's an average of 2 points per game over those ten games. The team that ended up champions in 2020-21 (Cambridge I think, though I always get my Cambridge's and my Cheltenham's mixed up) won the league over the 46 games with an average of LESS THAN 2 POINTS PER GAME . . . ie less than 92 points. So for ten games, Rob had that bad team of 2020-21 performing at better-than-champions levels. If Lazarus had been watching he would have said "Rob's done a more amazing job that the one done on me".

Work it out! Rob Kelly performed a miracle. Like other managers mentioned in this thread such as Peter Kane and Kenny Lowe, Rob was not in the glory, glory business of bringing us silverware but was in the saviour, saviour business of keeping the club's head above water. I have mentioned that to my mind nobody topped Don McEvoy at the winning end of the spectrum but we should never forget our managers who were down there in the gallows and saved our necks.

[Barrow afc 2018]

Also though a big mention to Rob Kelly, might only have been caretaker manager but without him we'd have gone down after that first season back in the EFL and who knows then what would've happened. He took a team with some very limited players, loan players and one lacking in belief to fight and I can't remember his points per game average but it was ridiculous compared to under Dunn and then Jolley.

Okay, Scott5, I can confirm that Rob Kelly's points per game average was indeed RIDICULOUS. At the risk of repeating myself on these pages (but why not when it's a tale of such jaw-dropping proportions?) I can tell you that when Rob took the reins we had 26 points from 30 games. We were doomed, doomed I tell you. After another 10 games - ie 40 played - we were on 46 points. Do the arithmetic. That's 20 points from 10 games. That's an average of 2 points per game over those ten games. The team that ended up champions in 2020-21 (Cambridge I think, though I always get my Cambridge's and my Cheltenham's mixed up) won the league over the 46 games with an average of LESS THAN 2 POINTS PER GAME . . . ie less than 92 points. So for ten games, Rob had that bad team of 2020-21 performing at better-than-champions levels. If Lazarus had been watching he would have said "Rob's done a more amazing job that the one done on me".

Work it out! Rob Kelly performed a miracle. Like other managers mentioned in this thread such as Peter Kane and Kenny Lowe, Rob was not in the glory, glory business of bringing us silverware but was in the saviour, saviour business of keeping the club's head above water. I have mentioned that to my mind nobody topped Don McEvoy at the winning end of the spectrum but we should never forget our managers who were down there in the gallows and saved our necks.

Scott5 and PJD two great posts and agree.

[blue nige]

Nothing to do with Managers but this was put on Facebook this is for you Paul the old steelworks end till it was knocked down for the F*****g Speedway!

Screenshot_20261030_172308_Facebook.jpg (791.5 KiB) Viewed 761 times

[John_Bucks]

Genuinely never seen that end look like that. Would have put my life on that being the Holker Street end. Great photo.

[Matty]

In my 20-25 years of following the club:

1) Evatt - goes without saying.
2) Bayliss and Sheridan - Promotion, FA Cup runs, FA Trophy win, the period that hooked me for life.
3) Wild - highest position in my time mixing it at the top end of League Two, for a while at least. The first couple of months of his first season were brilliant, after two close shaves with a more or less immediate return to the non league, it finally felt like we could stick around and establish ourselves as a league club.

[pjdaly]

That's a great photo, Nige, of the old Steelworks End . . . and the fact that it's in colour means it has to be a rare item to be preserved by the club. The colours look as though they have bled a bit, giving the appearance that we are wearing yellow shirts but, no, we were definitely wearing our customary white.

I do have a copy of this photo and it came during the match between Barrow and Crewe on 21st August 1971. In other words, it was very early in our last season in the FL and that Steelworks End was demolished within about six months of the photo being taken. I remember the match and Barrow won it 2-1 with a late winner coming from a John Rowlands header at the Holker Street End.

The copy I have of this photo was captioned with the words that it shows a shot from our right full-back, Bert Patrick, just clearing the top of the cross-bar at The Steelworks End.

The one conundrum I raise regarding this photo is that it seems to feature - towards the bottom right - a corner flag planted within the boundaries of the playing surface but definitely not in the corner. Explanations would be appreciated. I can categorically state I did not take the photo but I would have been stood very close to where it was taken . . . and I have no recollection of a stray corner-flag loitering near the six-yard box at the Holker Street End. I may be wrong but I think the photo was taken by Brian Moxham . . . I think Brian still appears at Holker Street to take photos on match-days.

[Barrowabc]

Ray willky, by far loved daz and Dave, and evo and I'm loving Murray think we'll do something under him before he's plucked away from us

[Scott5]

Also though a big mention to Rob Kelly, might only have been caretaker manager but without him we'd have gone down after that first season back in the EFL and who knows then what would've happened. He took a team with some very limited players, loan players and one lacking in belief to fight and I can't remember his points per game average but it was ridiculous compared to under Dunn and then Jolley.

Okay, Scott5, I can confirm that Rob Kelly's points per game average was indeed RIDICULOUS. At the risk of repeating myself on these pages (but why not when it's a tale of such jaw-dropping proportions?) I can tell you that when Rob took the reins we had 26 points from 30 games. We were doomed, doomed I tell you. After another 10 games - ie 40 played - we were on 46 points. Do the arithmetic. That's 20 points from 10 games. That's an average of 2 points per game over those ten games. The team that ended up champions in 2020-21 (Cambridge I think, though I always get my Cambridge's and my Cheltenham's mixed up) won the league over the 46 games with an average of LESS THAN 2 POINTS PER GAME . . . ie less than 92 points. So for ten games, Rob had that bad team of 2020-21 performing at better-than-champions levels. If Lazarus had been watching he would have said "Rob's done a more amazing job that the one done on me".

Work it out! Rob Kelly performed a miracle. Like other managers mentioned in this thread such as Peter Kane and Kenny Lowe, Rob was not in the glory, glory business of bringing us silverware but was in the saviour, saviour business of keeping the club's head above water. I have mentioned that to my mind nobody topped Don McEvoy at the winning end of the spectrum but we should never forget our managers who were down there in the gallows and saved our necks.

A miracle indeed, winning at promotion hunting Forest Green at the time 2-0 I remember which I think sealed our safety, something that looked impossible a few months previous under Jolley and I remember an interview from Scott Quigley where he seemed absolutely down and done. Didn't he beat Cambridge or Cheltenham (Cheltenham I think 3-0?) in one of the few maybe only games that were open to limited spectators that season after COVID?

There's not many managers will have a flag in their name let alone caretaker ones. A real shame he wasn't able to be kept on longer last season i think things would've been very different for us.

[xerxes]

That's a great photo, Nige, of the old Steelworks End . . . and the fact that it's in colour means it has to be a rare item to be preserved by the club. The colours look as though they have bled a bit, giving the appearance that we are wearing yellow shirts but, no, we were definitely wearing our customary white.

I do have a copy of this photo and it came during the match between Barrow and Crewe on 21st August 1971. In other words, it was very early in our last season in the FL and that Steelworks End was demolished within about six months of the photo being taken. I remember the match and Barrow won it 2-1 with a late winner coming from a John Rowlands header at the Holker Street End.

The copy I have of this photo was captioned with the words that it shows a shot from our right full-back, Bert Patrick, just clearing the top of the cross-bar at The Steelworks End.

The one conundrum I raise regarding this photo is that it seems to feature - towards the bottom right - a corner flag planted within the boundaries of the playing surface but definitely not in the corner. Explanations would be appreciated. I can categorically state I did not take the photo but I would have been stood very close to where it was taken . . . and I have no recollection of a stray corner-flag loitering near the six-yard box at the Holker Street End. I may be wrong but I think the photo was taken by Brian Moxham . . . I think Brian still appears at Holker Street to take photos on match-days.

This thread has gone a bit off topic, but I can't resist joining in. That photo and the two below have appeared on this forum before. I can't remember who posted them, but I saved them. The first one shows the Crewe players congratulating each other after taking the lead (though in fact it was an own goal by Bobby Noble, No. 6). The second one shows John Rowlands (with socks round his ankles, next to a Crewe player) heading the winner. Also a photo of the team sheet from the match programme.

Regarding the flag on the pitch, the copy I have is a lot more fuzzy, and is not quite as wide, so doesn't show the flag. The one above appears to be sharpened up, presumably by software - I wonder if the flag is an AI addition?

Crewe 1.jpg (414.54 KiB) Viewed 394 times

Crewe 2.jpg (580.33 KiB) Viewed 394 times

Crewe71.JPG (2.04 MiB) Viewed 394 times