TODAY’S OPPONENTS
We welcome to Keys Park the players, officials & supporters of
Barow Football Club
There can’t be many football clubs who can claim to have had a more eventful recent history than the Pitmen but our visitors today Barrow AFC is one club which probably can. Barrow AFC have spent five seasons in the Northern Premier League from the start of the century, four seasons in the Conference North and five seasons in the Conference Premier before relegation at the end of last season, as well as FA Cup runs in 2008-09 and 2009-10 which took them to third round exits at Middlesbrough and Sunderland respectively. The Bluebirds also experienced success in the FA Trophy, winning the trophy in 2009/10 at Wembley Stadium, upsetting the odds to overcome league champions Stevenage Borough 2-1. The town of Barrow-in-Furness, the Pitmen’s second longest journey of the league season, is the birthplace of former England internationals Emlyn Hughes and Gary Stevens, and is also the home to a second NonLeague football club in Holker Old Boys, who play in the North West Counties League Division One. On my only previous visit to the Cumbrians’ Holker Street ground on the opening day of the 2005/06 Conference North season my good friend Jon Hood was tasked with writing and handing in the official team sheet to the match referee on behalf of the club as the team coach was stuck in traffic on the journey up. That was a first for us, and positive memories of my trip there also came from the helpfulness of the club shop staff who ordered a pennant for me and sent it to my home Y ?\???X?]\?H ^HY??&]??[?H[? ????? H^H? H?[YK??\????Q???&\??\??[?X[?Y?\?\???Y\?????[XY?YH ??\??[?[]?H?^[\?? ???H\ ?[?Y[? ?\? H?][ \??? Z\? ?X?[? ?X??\??[?X?[X?\? ?
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