THE BLUEBIRDS ARE FLYING BACK TO THE BIG TIME
RONNIE Radford’s goal for Hereford United against Newcastle in 1972 is generally considered one of the greatest moments in English football history.
That is not the case in Barrow-in-Furness.
One long- forgotten consequence of Radford’s FA Cup thunderbolt — and John Motson’s immortal words on
Match of the Day — is that it helped cost Barrow AFC their Football League status.
The Cumbrian club finished third bottom of the old Fourth Division that season and in those days, well before automatic promotion to and from non-League, they were put up for re-election at the League’s AGM.
It was the 11th time Barrow had been through the process. Southern League Hereford were the name on everyone’s lips so were voted in as Barrow were cast out.
‘We were unlucky to be in the wrong place at the wrong time,’ explains Phil Yelland, Barrow club historian and supporter of 56 years. ‘ The AGM was usually an old pals’ act, maybe the board got complacent. Hereford had done well in the FA Cup and there were suggestions that people simply didn’t like coming to Cumbria. After all, Barrow is at the end of the longest culde-sac in Britain.
‘We went into the Northern Premier League and our players were sold to other clubs. It was like we’d dropped off the face of the earth. I’m still fed up with seeing Radford’s goal 48 years later.’
Now, after nearly half a century in the wilderness, the Bluebirds could soon be a League club once again. They have a seven-point lead at the top of the National League and a vastly superior goal difference to nearest challengers Harrogate, Halifax and Yeovil.
And Barrow, under visionary manager Ian Evatt, could be returning in some style.
The former Derby, QPR and Blackpool defender, 38, takes delight in destroying the classic non-League tropes of burly, gaptoothed defenders hoofing long balls towards burly, gap-toothed strikers.
The accent is on playing out from the back, wing- backs creating overloads and high presses — as though the essence of Pep Guardiola or Jurgen Klopp has trickled down through the divisions.
One of Barrow’s 63 league goals this season involved a 24-pass move and another saw all 11 players touch the ball. It’s little wonder the fans have nicknamed Evatt’s team ‘Barrowcelona’.
‘People told me when I got the job, “You can’t get out of the National League playing football”,’ said Evatt. ‘Well, we’re having a good go at it and we’ll see what happens at the end of the season.’
Barrow cannot escape all the problems non-League football presents. Last Tuesday’s epic 740-mile round trip to Dover saw a 2-1 defeat — their first in the league since late October — and was compounded when the team bus broke down.
The squad and coaching staff hitched a lift home with the 23 hardcore supporters who were on their own bus, rolling back into Barrow at 7am having left at 10am the previous day. Barrow-in-Furness, located on a peninsula that juts out into the Irish Sea, was voted among the unhappiest places to live in the UK in a 2014 survey. But the team’s success is drawing the crowds back to Holker Street after so many years of stagnation and brushes with extinction. ‘The club is transformed both on and off the pitch,’ said Yelland. ‘For years it was a struggle to get locals to identify with the club but now the whole town is buying back into it. It’s not just winning, but the football they play. It’s just not what you expect in non-League.’ Unfortunately there was scant evidence of that at Barnet on Saturday after Evatt rested seven key players with an eye on their 13 remaining league fixtures. The Wembley arch is visible on the horizon as you walk to the Hive and Barnet can dream of getting there in the FA Trophy after three goals in eight second-half minutes from Cheye Alexander, Simeon Akinola and Josh Walker swept them into the last eight. Barnet are now unbeaten in 12 games and manager Darren Currie had his view on the Guardiola effect at this level. ‘There is no doubt that the brand and style of football has changed in modern times and most try to play a bit more on the grass,’ he said. ‘Some still believe in using the sky but that is the beauty of the game. There are many ways to win football matches. ‘Barrow play a nice brand of football, I believe we play a nice brand, too.’