Released/Retained

[pjdaly]

It's surprising to me to learn that George Ray has been released. I had assumed he must have made the decision to go. I have to say I thought George was outstanding last season and such a dominant force in the air. We finished with the 5th best defensive record in the league and although Ray, Canavan and Chester all performed well I'll make the controversial (and probably minority call) and sat that, for me, George Ray edged it for being the best performer of the three.

It's not so surprising that his big pal, Tom White, has also been released. Don't get me wrong, Tom was a loyal and valuable servant to us and could be relied upon to perform the defensive shield role very well when we had our backs to the wall. However we need someone who can do this but also add more creativity and forward movement. Thanks go to both players.

[Louis29]

It's surprising to me to learn that George Ray has been released. I had assumed he must have made the decision to go. I have to say I thought George was outstanding last season and such a dominant force in the air. We finished with the 5th best defensive record in the league and although Ray, Canavan and Chester all performed well I'll make the controversial (and probably minority call) and sat that, for me, George Ray edged it for being the best performer of the three.

It's not so surprising that his big pal, Tom White, has also been released. Don't get me wrong, Tom was a loyal and valuable servant to us and could be relied upon to perform the defensive shield role very well when we had our backs to the wall. However we need someone who can do this but also add more creativity and forward movement. Thanks go to both players.

+1 to to whole statement. Ray was best defender for me as well

[Mark Johnson]

It's a shame about Ray

They must be wanting more pace at the back next season.

Hope he has a good holiday with Tom White

Anyone who actually thinks Ray has been released because they want more pace, hasn’t a clue what they are talking about. In league 2 you bring in players who can head the ball and defend like their lives depend on it, George had these in abundance, it’s not a [SwearFilter] race they are competing in, saying that, he has as much pace as any defensive player at this level, there has to be an ulterior reason behind this.

Mate we have Canavan and hoping to keep Chester. If we are playing 3 at the back of course we need pace. Teams got a lot of joy playing through us and we need to be quick on the turn and have someone quick to cover.

Wild has already said we need to add 'athleticism' next season.. I wonder what one of these attributes is? Pace maybe?

Ray had pace??

You don't have a clue mate if anyone

[Big_Bluebird]

I’d imagine they’ve got a ray replacement more or less nailed down. He was on decent wages so can’t imagine room for them both

[bluessupporter]

He was on decent wages

I hear the sound of nails being hit on heads!

[PaddockCharver]

Also Elliott Watt released. He is a very decent player in L2, with a good pedigree. I wonder if he is “a good lad”?

Wouldn’t be surprised to see him heading back to Carlisle

Watch this space!

[Bombadel]

Wouldn’t be surprised to see him heading back to Carlisle

Watch this space!

“Charver” you practically have your own language up at those Scottish Borders.

I thought the interview with one of your new owners was comical though as she didn’t have a clue about any of your local dialect. Not that it really matters but then your other owner said you had a mid table budget. It will be interesting to see how the summer transfer window pans out.

[sambino]

Watch this space!

“Charver” you practically have your own language up at those Scottish Borders.

I thought the interview with one of your new owners was comical though as she didn’t have a clue about any of your local dialect. Not that it really matters but then your other owner said you had a mid table budget. It will be interesting to see how the summer transfer window pans out.

Simpson said they would have a bottom end budget after the last game, I find it hard to believe we will have a better budget than them

[Bombadel]

“Charver” you practically have your own language up at those Scottish Borders.

I thought the interview with one of your new owners was comical though as she didn’t have a clue about any of your local dialect. Not that it really matters but then your other owner said you had a mid table budget. It will be interesting to see how the summer transfer window pans out.

Simpson said they would have a bottom end budget after the last game, I find it hard to believe we will have a better budget than them

Time will tell I guess, as mentioned before though, at the last qna the owners ambition was very clear, and PW has the 3-5 year target to be pushing for promotion, which he almost managed in his second year. If he didn’t have the budget to match that ambition then I don’t think he’d be shy about raising that as an issue .

[andyg]

It's a bit like the difficult 2nd album rock bands used to be faced with after a brilliant first one. For PW its the difficult third year of a contract he is going to be faced with.

I managed to see Barrow live (not counting ifollow viewings) over a dozen times this season. As seeing your team live rather than on some form of media stream is a far better way to judge how things are going. For me three of those live games stood out to me.

Firstly, all the way back to Sutton at home in August we beat them 2-1 after they'd come off a brilliant first game of the season win against Notts Co. They went down to ten men went one up but we got two late on to win the game Acquah getting a great goal and Proctor scoring his only goal for us. My overriding impression of Barrow was of a very solid but unspectacular L2 team. To be fair I was quite happy about that as I thought Sutton were OK (I'm still surprised they have had such a bad season). Didn't think we were particularly imaginative but very solid - mid to high mid table was my gut feeling.

Secondly, Crewe away in December - what a performance under severe pressure when the home team pulled a goal back. We took our chances were very very solid yet again with Whitfield outstanding. Was getting a little excited about the team. Little did we know this was to be our last away win of the season. The way we saw out the game at 3-1 offered a glimpse of real potential - dare we get excited?

Third game, Swindon at home (was going to talk about Donny away but I think this game was more relevant). After a disallowed goal (which still not sure about) and a couple of half decent chances we fell apart at the back & gave two goals away at the end of the first half which we never recovered from. The second half was most telling we huffed and puffed and produced little or nothing we simply faded away - for me there were alarm bells ringing as Swindon, a poor team, could have won by more by the end of the game.

What am i trying to say/ I'm not sure really! but I think we simply ran out of steam - losing Ray for 3 games and the injury to Stockton (after his seven goals he didn't get another after returning & this was probably significant as he may still having been carrying that injury) were major issues but others seemed to be unable to step up. It isn't just us others have imploded such as Leeds and Preston for example in the Championship this can happen to any club. However, PW, as others have said, needs to find a way out of this. As a person who Hadrian as rightly said about me can be a half empty sort of guy I do fear a little bit for next season - but that's also being a Barrow fan for 60+ years! I hope we can keep our good contracted players this summer and unlike many others I really do feel there is a player in Telford. Remember Josh Gordons first season with us and how he got it together in his second season. Whatever happens this close season is going to be crucial for the club.

That's my end of season summary - still a bit down but lets move on now.

[Jim]

Third game, Swindon at home (was going to talk about Donny away but I think this game was more relevant). After a disallowed goal (which still not sure about) and a couple of half decent chances we fell apart at the back & gave two goals away at the end of the first half which we never recovered from. The second half was most telling we huffed and puffed and produced little or nothing we simply faded away - for me there were alarm bells ringing as Swindon, a poor team, could have won by more by the end of the game.

I would agree that it was the Swindon game for me that defined how we would end the season. IMO, we didn't look too bad at Morecambe after a dreadful start and I expected us to bounce back the following Saturday against Swindon. It was a shock to see such an abject performance and for me the writing was on the wall.

[HenneysKnee]

Watch this space!

“Charver” you practically have your own language up at those Scottish Borders.

I thought the interview with one of your new owners was comical though as she didn’t have a clue about any of your local dialect. Not that it really matters but then your other owner said you had a mid table budget. It will be interesting to see how the summer transfer window pans out.

It was Simpson who said about the mid table budget. The owner categorically denied it and said it would be much higher than that

[McMark]

Alarm bells certainly should have been ringing for us after the way FGR walked away with a result at our place that was followed by a heavy loss at Salford. From then on we avoided a few bumps in the track and things were looking rosey for a while. But from Morecambe onwards like the local railway line derailment it proved very costly indeed, the subsidence sadly couldn’t be repaired it time.

[Desmond2-2]

Anyone who actually thinks Ray has been released because they want more pace, hasn’t a clue what they are talking about. In league 2 you bring in players who can head the ball and defend like their lives depend on it, George had these in abundance, it’s not a [SwearFilter] race they are competing in, saying that, he has as much pace as any defensive player at this level, there has to be an ulterior reason behind this.

Mate we have Canavan and hoping to keep Chester. If we are playing 3 at the back of course we need pace. Teams got a lot of joy playing through us and we need to be quick on the turn and have someone quick to cover.

Wild has already said we need to add 'athleticism' next season.. I wonder what one of these attributes is? Pace maybe?

Ray had pace??

You don't have a clue mate if anyone

I actually do have a clue Mr Johnson, and in my opinion Ray was one of the best defensive players in league 2 last season, he has all the attributes to do well at this level, personally Chester should have been released,he lacked pace, isn’t the tallest for a centre back, and dallied on the ball and was dispossessed far to many times recently. But in PW I trust.

[Jonty]

Mate we have Canavan and hoping to keep Chester. If we are playing 3 at the back of course we need pace. Teams got a lot of joy playing through us and we need to be quick on the turn and have someone quick to cover.

Wild has already said we need to add 'athleticism' next season.. I wonder what one of these attributes is? Pace maybe?

Ray had pace??

You don't have a clue mate if anyone

I actually do have a clue Mr Johnson, and in my opinion Ray was one of the best defensive players in league 2 last season, he has all the attributes to do well at this level, personally Chester should have been released,he lacked pace, isn’t the tallest for a centre back, and dallied on the ball and was dispossessed far to many times recently. But in PW I trust.

Agree. Aside from the sending off I thought he’d just had our best season for us and was a consistently good player in the heart of our defence. Unless he didn’t want to re-negotiate for next season it was a surprising one to let him go. Solid L2 defender and someone will snap him up