Harrogate Town v Barrow match thread

[Bakewell Blue]

Interesting to see Ben Whitfield was playing (and scoring) for Burton Albion in the League Cup last night, despite talk of him being out frozen out.

[Jonty]

Down to 14 players left in the squad not injured, thats very, very concerning.....

No academy, no reserves, no youth teams or junior. A club with absolutely no structure. Kendal town have a better infrastructure than us. The club handed to keys of the castle to a football agent based on an rumours someone else wanted him.

It’s embarrassing that an EFL club struggles to fill the bench so early in a season. I have no idea what sort of checks we carry out on players but we have signed a load of injury prone players.

Despite 5 years in the football league we don’t belong in it. The owners have invested loads of money and what they have done has been great but they haven’t employed the right people and that has cost them in the long run.

As much as it pains me to admit it, you are right. We have no footballing structure outside of the first team.
As for injuries and players who came here with an injury record, thats a risk the recruitment team is responsible for taking on, but in the wise words of Sir Alex, “always bring in players who play games”

[Main Stand SeasonTct]

Interesting to see Ben Whitfield was playing (and scoring) for Burton Albion in the League Cup last night, despite talk of him being out frozen out.

To be fair he was named last week to play in the same game that was called off due to a power failure.

[Main Stand SeasonTct]

No academy, no reserves, no youth teams or junior. A club with absolutely no structure. Kendal town have a better infrastructure than us. The club handed to keys of the castle to a football agent based on an rumours someone else wanted him.

It’s embarrassing that an EFL club struggles to fill the bench so early in a season. I have no idea what sort of checks we carry out on players but we have signed a load of injury prone players.

Despite 5 years in the football league we don’t belong in it. The owners have invested loads of money and what they have done has been great but they haven’t employed the right people and that has cost them in the long run.

As much as it pains me to admit it, you are right. We have no footballing structure outside of the first team.
As for injuries and players who came here with an injury record, thats a risk the recruitment team is responsible for taking on, but in the wise words of Sir Alex, “always bring in players who play games”

To be fair finances have dictated massively this season on how recruitment has been done. More so than any season since we got back into the league. Paul Hornby explained all this in his recent interview. We simply cannot afford to purchase a ready made top end Division 2 player. We have had to take risks. Of those out injured I wouldn't have had Foley, Fletcher or MJ Williams as injury prone players.Harper and Healy, Kane Hemmings yes.

[Scott5]

I’d have had him back again Whitfield, in his first year with us he was outstanding and can run at defenders and has pace and end product. The current system isn’t really geared up for him or Barkhuizen or even Mahoney though and if we’re going to persist with this then it’s proper wingbacks that we need. At least on the right side where it looked like a lot of Harrogates play came from last night in the highlights, and an area where we’ve probably struggled for since Brad Barry.

[April1972]

I’d have had him back again Whitfield, in his first year with us he was outstanding and can run at defenders and has pace and end product. The current system isn’t really geared up for him or Barkhuizen or even Mahoney though and if we’re going to persist with this then it’s proper wingbacks that we need. At least on the right side where it looked like a lot of Harrogates play came from last night in the highlights, and an area where we’ve probably struggled for since Brad Barry.

It’s part of the problem. We have some decent wingers but the formation requires wingbacks which we don’t have (may be Jackson aside). So play to what you have or recruit for what you want to play to - we’ve done neither!

[Pedro]

As much as it pains me to admit it, you are right. We have no footballing structure outside of the first team.
As for injuries and players who came here with an injury record, thats a risk the recruitment team is responsible for taking on, but in the wise words of Sir Alex, “always bring in players who play games”

To be fair finances have dictated massively this season on how recruitment has been done. More so than any season since we got back into the league. Paul Hornby explained all this in his recent interview. We simply cannot afford to purchase a ready made top end Division 2 player. We have had to take risks. Of those out injured I wouldn't have had Foley, Fletcher or MJ Williams as injury prone players.Harper and Healy, Kane Hemmings yes.

Or we could have a scouting system to bring prospects in,need to buy smarter.
We have a Director of Football who has been promoted but to what ends?
Andy Whing is coming under some unfair criticism after 4 games which could damage his confidence as he develops.
Give him at least 10 games to address our woefull situation.

[Main Stand SeasonTct]

To be fair finances have dictated massively this season on how recruitment has been done. More so than any season since we got back into the league. Paul Hornby explained all this in his recent interview. We simply cannot afford to purchase a ready made top end Division 2 player. We have had to take risks. Of those out injured I wouldn't have had Foley, Fletcher or MJ Williams as injury prone players.Harper and Healy, Kane Hemmings yes.

Or we could have a scouting system to bring prospects in,need to buy smarter.
We have a Director of Football who has been promoted but to what ends?
Andy Whing is coming under some unfair criticism after 4 games which could damage his confidence as he develops.
Give him at least 10 games to address our woefull situation.

We have a recruitment team Joe Harvey , Iain Wood and Andy Whing who recruit in the parameters that the finances allow. We are as far behind the “ eight ball” with regards finances than any other time since we came back into the EFL. That’s not a slight at the owners it’s simply that more clubs now have a bigger playing budget than we do due to them increasing it.

[blue nige]

We have had to take risks. Of those out injured I wouldn't have had Foley, Fletcher or MJ Williams as injury prone players.Harper and Healy, Kane Hemmings yes.

Foley has had back spasm problems for the 2 seasons previous that's why we restricted the amount of games he played, MJ Williams is a hernia problem which was before pre season !, Fletcher there was never a reason given how he got injured was it in training,
We had lots of injuries last season around this time, is it preparation, training were they all fit to play in the pre season games ,something isn't right!

[BarrowLad71]

On a much more serious note it was shocking to see last night the way a disabled BAFC supporter was treated. Left the lad in an absolute state because he could use his walker as it could be ‘ thrown onto the pitch as a weapon ‘ was the reasoning and their solution was for two friends to carry him around basically .

I must say well done to the AFC fans for keeping their cool best they could as the steward and policing including Barrow Police was an embarrassment on how they dealt with it.

Hopefully the club and trust will come together and make a real example of this.

[Gazza]

Great! We have struggled like hell to get a goal scorer in and now Accrington, a club predicted to struggle have just landed Paddy Madden on a season long loan

[Sea Dog Sam]

No academy, no reserves, no youth teams or junior. A club with absolutely no structure. Kendal town have a better infrastructure than us. The club handed to keys of the castle to a football agent based on an rumours someone else wanted him.

It’s embarrassing that an EFL club struggles to fill the bench so early in a season. I have no idea what sort of checks we carry out on players but we have signed a load of injury prone players.

Despite 5 years in the football league we don’t belong in it. The owners have invested loads of money and what they have done has been great but they haven’t employed the right people and that has cost them in the long run.

As much as it pains me to admit it, you are right. We have no footballing structure outside of the first team.
As for injuries and players who came here with an injury record, thats a risk the recruitment team is responsible for taking on, but in the wise words of Sir Alex, “always bring in players who play games”

I think we've been punching above our weight for some time. I honestly believe that our future status is to be a National League club. No disgrace in that. One only has to look at the clubs currently in that league. Without a massive investment from somebody I can't see us being able to cope with the current or future financial pressure from being in EFL Div 2.

Our recruitment policy is shabby. We seem to sign either players who are past their sell by date or players who are injury prone. Heaney is the latest. Off injured within mins of coming on the field and putting us in a position where we have to play ten men. A class act in his day. But for how many games will he be fit?

The old excuse is that we have to take a gamble due to our financial inability to sign top players. Signing injury prone players who are usually sat on the bench recovering whilst we are paying their wages isn't a viable proposition. Why not take a gamble and look for players from the lower leagues who are hungry for success and have potential? It does make me wonder if our current recruitment policy includes scouting for such players?

[LCBAFC40]

Great! We have struggled like hell to get a goal scorer in and now Accrington, a club predicted to struggle have just landed Paddy Madden on a season long loan

Just seen that and thought he would have been ideal for us

[Scott5]

Great! We have struggled like hell to get a goal scorer in and now Accrington, a club predicted to struggle have just landed Paddy Madden on a season long loan

Just seen that and thought he would have been ideal for us

Legs have gone most on here would say

[Matty]

I'd be trying to bring in a right back tbh.