Stalybridge fans might think that they've got it bad, but Ajax fans are so hacked off about the state of their pitch that some of them protested by putting a couple of cows on it midweek and letting them graze. Having
spent some time living in Holland a few years ago, I've gotta tell ya that
this is about the closest that the Dutch come to humour. But at least the Dutch aren't as bad as the Sweats for continuously repeating their jokes.
I mean, "there's only one team in Tallin" might have been mildly amusing when it happened, if you were there and you were the one who thought it up in the first place, but please could someone tell Archie MacPherson that this one is no longer side-splittingly funny.

And if you're into fans' protests, then you might wanna keep the 10th March free. This is when Tufty is wanting you to stay away from the Runcorn v Bishop Auckland game being played at Widnes, as a way of protesting against Runcorn's proposed move to Widnes. What Tufty and his buddies are proposing is that everyone who is against this move turn up at Canal Street, - Runcorn's current home - and register their oppostion to the move to Widnes in this way.

Some Barrow fans did a similar thing earlier in the season, turning up for a game that was postponed at short notice, yet somehow Runcorn thought the pitch fit enough to play Liverpool in a lucrative friendly 48 hours earlier.

As an outsider, I've found it hard to keep track of what's happening at Runcorn. The club aren't forthcoming about events, apart from the usual stuff about outgoings exceeding income. Tufty isn't much better either. As soon as you think you know what's going on, but want to ask a couple of searching questions to find out more, then you tend to be met with a shower of abuse. Anyway, as far as we can see, Runcorn are in deep financial shite. Apart from our aborted trip this season, we last visited Runcorn during the 90/91 season when 722 fans turned up to see Runcorn rob (if you use steal or pinch in this article then we'll know it's stereotyping - Ed) us 3-1. This Saturday, they attracted less than 200 for a game in which that nice Mr. Watson scored a penalty - how surprising is that?

Sooooooo, it's not hard to see that Runcorn would be in the deep brown stuff. But Tufty also claims that there have been other stuff going on at the club that isn't anything like as savoury as those new style poppadums you get from Walkers. If his message board postings weren't quite so cryptic we might be able to give a factual account, but as it is we're left to surmise that Tufty and the current board don't agree, and it's all over this proposed move to Widnes, and the disagreement is pretty polarised with Tufty leaving a message on the Runcorn message board entitled "Corruption", and his follow-up was imaginatively entitled "Corruption 2".

Anyway, the upshot is that Tufty & Co are organising a boycott of the match against Bishop Auckland on the 10th March which is being played in Widnes. Instead of going there, Tufty would like you to join him at Canal Street, Runcorn to register your disapproval of the club's proposed move to Widnes.

Though I don't think referring to Bish fans as scabs if they go to the game in one of his first messages is gonna make him too many friends in the north-east.

Anyway, as far as protests go we're not too sure about this one. Apart from the rights and wrongs of Runcorn's ground move, is it gonna be effective? Our notion of protests involve three main ingredients - that you raise maximum publicity, that you cause disruption and/or annoyance to those you're protesting against and thirdly that you have a GOOD CRACK.

We've got you going on the first one, Tufty, but we ain't sure that standing at an empty footie ground is gonna get you too far on the other two. Good luck though. More info on this protest can be found at

And see ya next week at Canal Street.

Anybody thought that we'd got this one won, then? A return to some kind of form, no-one slagging the team performance off, and no Barrow fans complaining too much about the time added on due to time wasting which could have really shoved us up the Sore Losers League.

A bit quiet all round on the Sore Losers front really this weekend. The only team to make any real progress at all were Bishop Auckland themselves. A couple of their fans - Two Blue and Scarecrow - making complaints about a couple of Barrow fans dishing out over the top verbal abuse. Whilst we don't condone this type of behaviour, we do think the Bish fans' comments were a bit rich coming only a few weeks after a hundred or so Bish fans went rampaging through Burton. Wasn't the character called Scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz the one who didn't have a brain? Nuff said. And wasn't it refreshing when he called on fans of other clubs to agree with him in condemning Barrow fans, and an Alty fan spoke up in defence of Barrow!!?!?!!

Does that mean we'll have to be nice to Alty fans in future here at Reclaim The Holker Street (Nah - Ed)

And you can join in as well. If you wanna join our Give it a Lash for the Cash scheme then just click on the ball to the right.

And it needn't be just goals either. It can be anything you want. Goal assists. Penalty saves by Bish. Penalties given away. We don't wanna skint ya, but worra bout sponsoring Tufty's mate Liam Watson for how many penalties he earns between now and the end of the season. Do a double with Andy Whittaker and we could be pulling in thousands for the club. And things could get really silly if you put in a quid for every minute of injury time between now and the end of the season.

So if you wanna get involved just give the ball a deft little click and get on board.

Whaaaaaa......? I can almost hear ya now. Yep, this sat'day we made the trip to Farsley to watch Workington. An hour and a half to Bish or five minutes to Farsley. Usually there's no real contest, but work committments meant that it was Farsley and not Bishop Auckland.

And how did it compare with what's on offer at Holker Street? Wellllll, it was a quid less. There wasn't as much passing football, though the pitch didn't really lend itself to a flowing game. I did speak to a Workington fan who had been at last Tuesday's game, and he did comment on how he considered Barrow to be a passing, footballing team. There was as much committment as I've seen at Holker Street recently. There was no atmosphere. A total crowd of about 100, with about 15-20 from Workington, but they didn't gather together to shout or sing. Three goals, - though I missed Farsley's opener after three minutes (work again!). And about six or seven minutes of injury time in a game where there were only a couple of injuries and not all that much time-wasting.

And what of Brian Dawson? Welllllll, he put a lot of effort in, and he did cause the Farsley defence one or two problems, but overall the defence had the upper hand. Workington's goal did come from a corner which was earned after Dawson had a shot that was parried by the keeper. Apparently, Dawson was loaned out to bootle due to a dip in form, and has only just recently been recalled to Rough Park. But overall, I couldn't see that he would improve Barrow's team, though he did when we were in the Conference, and I can't believe that some fans have been slagging him off recently. Get a life, lads.

I was interested to see Gavin Skelton who I had heard a lot of when Workington first signed him. He looked okay, but again nothing outstanding. But again the poor conditions certainly won't have helped his playing style. He is obviously the midfield playmaker, taking freekicks, trying to make things happen, maybe it just wasn't his day but today not much happened for him.

Overall, an entertaining game, and Workington perhaps unlucky not to get a point.

REFWATCH:-

After hearing all the recent complaints about referees, and since I was a neutral I thought I'd take this opportunity to have a closer, unbiased look at the referee's performance - though I have gotta fess up to cheering loud and hard when Workington got a goal back during the second half, mainly because of the pr@tt next to me who was so conceited it was unbelieveable. Anyway, the ref. I've gotta say that I only watched him really closely during the second half, but overall I thought he had a decent game without giving either side any real favours. During the second 45, I counted 7 decisions which could have gone either way. On one I had a much better view than the ref, and he got that one wrong, but out of the seven he gave 4 to the home team and 3 to Workington, so that seems pretty fair to us. He didn't have any real contentious decisions to make, there wasn't much dissent, though a lot of throws were contested by both sides, even when it was obvious whose throw it was. He added six or seven minutes on at the end, which annoyed the home team, and was a little excessive. And he controlled the game pretty well.
So out of ten we're gonna give him one (only kidding, about eight outta ten'll do)

Recent results have led to the jamming of the Barrow message board with criticism of the team's committment, and calls for a wholesale clearout of players, with some fans even calling for the return of Neil Morton - oooeeerr. Some fans seem to have forgotten about Morty's dodgy temperament, though we were reminded briefly of it on New Year's day, but this had nothing on his headlong race up the pitch in search of Leek players to vent his spleen on a couple of seasons. And some fans have long memories with one saying that Morty's temperament wasn't as bad as David Hulme's - apparently David Hulme made a brief appearence for Barrow in the 1928/29 season and we don't want him back, do we?

Anyway, we'd thought we'd put it to the test. Are these fans right, or are they moaning for nowt? If we look back over the last ten years, how does Kenny's record stand up. Wellllllllllllll, take a look here:-

We've now made the trip to the north-east and we're here to speak to Bish's most famous fan, the Scarecrow. Hello, Scarecrow.
Awreet lad.
Now, Scarecrow, there's been a lot in the papers recently about the trouble caused by Bish's fans at the recent Trophy game against Burton. But you have a different view of things, don't you?
Aw aye. This trouble was nothing compared to wha' went doon at the Barra game last week. Why, some Barra fans were seen looking at some Bish fans a bit funny like. And one even smiled at me during the second half, like. And I'm sure I heard one gadgee having a wee swear like. It was like 1990 all over agin, with these Barra fans just asking for about a half dozen Bish halfwits to run across the cricket and footba' pitches looking for a scrap, like they did during the FA Cup game.
And you were on the message boards calling on fans of other clubs to condemn Barrow fans weren't you?
Oh aye. If it doesn't need saying, then I'm the one to say it, like. Even if it's just to deflect publicity away from us like.
And did fans of other clubs respond?
Oh aye. Quick as a flash they were on the web boards having their say aboot wha' happened when they played at Bish earlier oan in the season.
About how they had a good time?
Nah, not reely like. More aboot how the same foar fans who intimidated Barra fans, also intimidated Alty fans, like. And aboot how it's really weird that although Bish have had a lot of problems recently, there's no stewards, like and no' a thing has reely been done.
But the Alty fans must have had a lot to say about trouble caused by Barrow fans?
Aye, reet enuff. Only they described the trouble caused by Barra fans as banter rather than trouble. I think it's a Cheshire saying, like.
And did they describe it as trouble when the Trophy game a few seasons ago got held up for close to thirty minutes by fighting Bish fans?
Aye, they did. But what they meant to say was banter. And I knae Barra are bad like, because a couple of Hyde fans who were at Sat'day's game toal me about trouble at their game against Barra at Hyde las' season, like.
And wha' happened there then?
Well it was reeely bad like. One Barra fan had a wee bit much ta drink, and ended up verbally spraffing with some gadgees from Hyde for aboot a minute or so. And then another Barra fan came and calmed it down. They said it lasted for nearly thirty seconds.
And did these Hyde fans tell you about what happened at their game the week before against Emley when the bar had to be shut early after Emley officials were abused by Hyde fans.
Funny that, but nae they didn't. But everyone knows that Barra's got a bad reputation. At least they will have when I start to spread some more shite round and just begin to make it up as I go along, like.

chance of some silverware as we have now qualified for the next stage of some cup or other - I don't think it's the Presidents' Cup we've qualified for, maybe it's the Senators, Ambassadors or Pregnant Chad Cup or something like that. Anyway we're not getting too excited yet, but winning some silverware would be an achievement, and we will get along to the Final. And anyone who doesn't think it's an achievement should remember that the last time we won any silverware was about 20 games before we went into liquidation and nearly went out of existence - any coincidence there?

But what is exciting us is the Give it a Lash for the Cash scheme which is really beginning to take off now. Two goals on Saturday and another three tonight means we're giving money away left, right and centre and we're happy about that. Yet another recruit this week to the scheme. And another fan who's impressed by Darren Robert's confidence and commitment to the club displayed in his cash for goals wages deal. So impressed in fact that they've weighed in with a similar incentive. A quid for every home goal that Darren scores between now and the end of the season, and half of that for every away goal. Ooooerr the maths of that one. Anyone got a couple of fingers they can lend us for adding up purposes.

Anyway. That's up to £18.50 for this month already, and we've still got Runcorn to come! And given Andy Hill and Gareth Jones getting their names on the scoresheet last night, anyone fancy putting a quid in for each local goal between now and May need only click

Following our article last week on Leek Town and their coverage in the local paper - the Leek Post & Times - we have been contacted by an official at Leek Town with their version of events regarding coverage of the club. They asked us if they could have a right to reply, and hey, there's no need to ask. We would actively encourage anyone to reply to any of our articles. The more the merrier. It's all about stimulating interest and getting issues debated, getting involved, and ultimately getting more people through the gates, whether that be at Holker Street, Harrison Park or wherever you watch your non-league football.

Sooooooo, here's what a Leek official has to say on the matter. One of the things the Leek official has said is that Mr. Cope has got access to nearly all media output regarding Leek Town at present - pointing out that Mike Cope continues to write for three other papers - and they consider that to be unhealthy.

Leek Town didn't have a problem with Mike Cope's match reports in themselves, but were concerned that he was having an increasing tendency to add unfavourable and "factually incorrect" statements that had nothing to do with the game itself.

Two sides to every story as the saying goes. And what is printed above is Leek's side of the story. We gave Mr. Cope's side last week, so we think we've played fair now.

We ain't gonna pass on our own opinions now as this piece is Leek Town's right to reply, and you're all old enough to make your own minds up. Last week's article can be found

We will say that we enjoyed our first trip to Harrison Park this season. We've enjoyed some banter with Leek fans, and we hope that you come through your current financial problems. And as we've no real affinity with Frickley, and we've had feedback from Leek fans and officials, we hope ya stay up.

As we said earlier on, we would encourage people to get in touch, and whilst we are a Barrow e-zine and not a Leek e-zine, we do feel that there are loads of issues around media coverage that are of interest to non-league fans, officials, players everywhere. So if you've got anything to say get in touch. Does your club get a fair crack of the whip as regards your local paper/radio? D'ya think that there's too much concentration on the Conference? D'ya want more than just a results/match report service? As we live away from the Furness area, we would be keen to hear from Barrow fans as to what they think of the Mail's coverage of the club. So whatever your view, get in touch and we'll air it here.