When can we officially welcome Barrow FC back into this forum?

[Monkey Tennis]

Nicky Clee is more a phenomenon than a footballer. The greatest winger to grace the non-league game, but nobody's ever seen him play.

 

[Monkey Tennis]

To cut through the swathe of hilarious, still funny Bingham stuff, it'll be interesting to see if Barrow can keep Evatt. Whenever a guy gets promoted playing the kind of style they did, it's always difficult to keep him, bound to be a few L1/L2 teams sniffing around him and his staff.

And, even if they do stay, how can they improve the squad. Yes, it's possible they keep the same core and just blast through, but what is more likely is they can't all handle the step up and stutter into a mid-table finish, which I'm sure is a decent outcome.

Going to be a fair few teams that come undone when they travel there that's for sure, bitch of a journey for anyone south of Birmingham.

It's nice to see a new face join the league as well.

We all thought in November that he was going to join Fylde but he turned down a massive pay rise. Then we all thought he was going to join Blackpool (his number one club) but they said he wasn't experienced enough. I can't see him joining another club in L2, and I think any club would wait to see how he does for the first few months before taking a punt.

The players that we've retained, I'm mostly confident can do a good job higher up - those that haven't been good enough for Football League in the past have thrived mainly because of the cohesiveness of the team. It's obvious to anyone that they're all mates and enjoy playing together in a system that works. Just don't need anything to upset that, like the manager leaving...

 

[AdamStag]

To cut through the swathe of hilarious, still funny Bingham stuff, it'll be interesting to see if Barrow can keep Evatt. Whenever a guy gets promoted playing the kind of style they did, it's always difficult to keep him, bound to be a few L1/L2 teams sniffing around him and his staff.

And, even if they do stay, how can they improve the squad. Yes, it's possible they keep the same core and just blast through, but what is more likely is they can't all handle the step up and stutter into a mid-table finish, which I'm sure is a decent outcome.

Going to be a fair few teams that come undone when they travel there that's for sure, bitch of a journey for anyone south of Birmingham.

It's nice to see a new face join the league as well.

The important thing is you can get there on a train direct from Manchester

 

[Railway Blue]

And yes, we know our ground is a dump. But it's our dump.

Precisely ~~~ I even thought your Weatherspoon's was quite nice last time I visited. Don't forget we have one thing in common ~~~ we were both destroyed (us worse than you) by a certain Liverpool gangster.

 

[BarraMatt]

Mid table would be lovely.

 

[Muzzle]

Never played Barrow in the league, so another ground to cross off my list

 

[Soup Ladle]

I'd actually agree with Vanni on the SPL. Most teams have a handful of quality players that brings up the standard of the rest of them. There's not a lot of money around so they scout the 4th and 5th tiers here for 'rough diamonds' that could be molded and attracted by better stadiums and slightly bigger crowds, some much bigger, with the carrot of massive days out at Ibrox, Celtic Park, let alone a shot of failing to qualify for the Europa League.

Take Nicke Kabamba - we sold him to Kilmarnock and he's been a world beater there, just a competent national league frontman for us, nothing more. He has the raw ingredients to play higher but he was in a poor side with us. Scored and gave Celtic problems when I saw him, why? The service to him was better, he was constantly involved and he looked happier.

Difficult to compare the overall standards, Celtic & Rangers clearly much better standard than here and I'd argue the top 6 SPL are as well. Once you get to the relegation strugglers, that's probably more L2 level give or take. Scots Championship is National League level, except for the Dundee United's, Hibs etc who run away with it.

 

[chipmunx]

 

[BarraMatt]

Are the EFL highlight shows still on Cartoon Network?

 

[Chris FGR]

Quest. Presented by Colin Murray.

 

[AdamStag]

Are the EFL highlight shows still on Cartoon Network?

They’re alright for what they are, they used to only be an hour but now they have an hour for the championship then half an hour for league 1 and 2. They did an adequate job tbh.

Obviously the only thing the conference had was live games which you’re not likely to be on here, as any league 2 games are either the “big sides” or Salford

 

[Chris FGR]

In our last season in the Conference we were live on BT 7 times I think. We've been live on Sky 0 times this season, unsurprisingly. Last season we were on twice, our 2 play off semis. TV wise you get much better coverage in the Conference, although iFollow does make up for that.

 

[chipmunx]

In our last season in the Conference we were live on BT 7 times I think. We've been live on Sky 0 times this season, unsurprisingly. Last season we were on twice, our 2 play off semis. TV wise you get much better coverage in the Conference, although iFollow does make up for that.

I'm guessing as we've just returned after 48 years we might be on early doors as it's good publicity and a different promotion story than usual - probably against Exeter (if they don't go up) as they were the last team we played the last time we were here? The National League did something similar this season with our match against Yeovil at Home was televised (on BT) as it was 40 years that weekend that the old "Alliance Premier" league started and we played Yeovil at home in the 1st round of matches then.

 

[Si Robin]

How long you've been away is irrelevant. You don't have a famous manager, aren't a famous phoenix club and you don't have any Premier League legend links.

If you get on telly it'll be a miracle, or a playoff game.

 

[Monkey Tennis]

How long you've been away is irrelevant. You don't have a famous manager, aren't a famous phoenix club and you don't have any Premier League legend links.

If you get on telly it'll be a miracle, or a playoff game.

Err...we have Wayne Rooney's brother, surely that's enough to get on the telly.

 

[FGR Stroud]

Barrow: longest cul-de-sac in the country.
Enjoyed my first few visits there. It remained an old fashioned club steeped in 1950s nostalgia. Plenty of rust everywhere. But there was no segregation which allowed good banter from both sets of supporters.

Alas they started segregating and the long trip up north no longer became enjoyable.
FGR happen to play Barrow the next match after they had hosted Lincoln, where there had been some sort of serious trouble ie glass bottles thrown into the home crowd.
When the 25 FGR supporters turned up to watch the game there was police everywhere videoing everything.
Very intimidating, it was as if we were also expected to cause trouble.
Of the 25 who made the trip about 3/4 were senior citizens. So to think a small village side could cause trouble beggars belief.

 

[AdamStag]

Barrow: longest cul-de-sac in the country.
Enjoyed my first few visits there. It remained an old fashioned club steeped in 1950s nostalgia. Plenty of rust everywhere. But there was no segregation which allowed good banter from both sets of supporters.

Alas they started segregating and the long trip up north no longer became enjoyable.
FGR happen to play Barrow the next match after they had hosted Lincoln, where there had been some sort of serious trouble ie glass bottles thrown into the home crowd.
When the 25 FGR supporters turned up to watch the game there was police everywhere videoing everything.
Very intimidating, it was as if we were also expected to cause trouble.
Of the 25 who made the trip about 3/4 were senior citizens. So to think a small village side could cause trouble beggars belief.

Unfortunately, as what also happens at Mansfield - the police seem to think it’s within their powers to become Chinese all of a sudden and forget we live in a democracy.

Whereas I’m not stating you are, don’t let the brainless police - presumably filling up on OT at the clubs expense - ruin your view of the club, town or trip