The opposition tend to
defend deep when there
is a throw in at the
International Stadium
both sets of supporters emphasising their local rivalry.
| Reclaim The Holker Street | ||
| December E-Dition | ||
| Third (and back by
popular side demand) edition. |
December 15th
Find Me Somebody To Love To Hate.
|
The opposition tend to defend deep when there is a throw in at the International Stadium |
A 240 mile round trip across the North Yorkshire
Moors in late December, or early January if we were at home on Boxing Day,
can hardly be classed as a local derby. The geographical isolation
of both clubs meant that this ‘derby’ was probably inevitable.
Gateshead ended up playing Halifax Town on Boxing Day in their last season
in the Conference after Barrow were relegated. Northwich, Witton,
Altrincham and Runcorn were all closer to Barrow – and a lot shorter travelling
time because after Crooklands you can scoot down the M6 but route A66 across
Brough just isn’t as quick, - though it is more exciting on a Z650 very
early on a Sunday morning, but that's another story. But they
had their own derbies. You could almost spit across from Witton's
ground to the Drill Field where Northwich play. (Not really,
but some fans liked to try). And recent talk of them groundsharing
has been strongly opposed by
both sets of supporters emphasising their local rivalry. |
Soooooo, is there any rivalry between Gateshead and Barrow? I don’t think so. I’ve been up to the International Stadium a few times and haven’t noticed any particular rivalry. There are a couple of things that do spice things up a little but not to the extent that there is any great desire on the part of Barrow fans to revel in Gateshead doing badly – a prerequisite for real rivalry. I don’t think there would be any great cheer going up at Holker Street at half-time if it was announced that Gateshead were losing. In Ray Wilkie’s times and more recently with Kenny Lowe, Barrow have had a fair proportion of ex-Gateshead players and some go the other way, but I can’t think of any who left in particularly acrimonious circumstances. Charlie Butler took some stick on his return to Holker Street in the early nineties, but nothing untoward.
Like Barrow, Gateshead harbour ambitions of Conference football sooner rather than later. And with a lot of clubs having reached their ceiling in the Unibond, this does make games against Gateshead as something of a benchmark. And with their reputation for playing good football in recent seasons, then it does mean a little bit extra to put one over on them, but again not enough to make it serious rivalry.
What also makes travelling to Gateshead a little bit above the average is the myth – mainly purported by cliché ridden media types and geordies themselves – that the north-east is a hotbed of football fanaticism. The three teams in the premiership might get good crowds, but as soon as they are starved of top flight football, then the “fanatics” soon disappear. And no one outside of these three get anything like half decent crowds, and the non-league clubs in the area, including Gateshead, all suffer from this. So trips to the north-east when Barrow fans make up the majority of the crowd go a long way to exploding this myth and brings with it some small sense of smug satisfaction.
The main thing that stops any rivalry developing is the total lack of atmosphere at Gateshead. The International Stadium has only one side open to fans during games. This leaves vast empty spaces in what is quite a large stadium. There is an athletics track between the fans and the pitch, which results in a feeling of detachment from the game. And the stadium is an all-seater which in itself almost kills off any chance of getting a decent sing song going.. Add to these points, the fact that Gateshead’s average gate is only about 300, and that leaves games against Gateshead lacking in the atmosphere necessary to create a rivalry.
And so our quest for a local rival continues……….more to follow.
December 16th
Bishop Auckland At Home 1-4
"Get out of the way you doss pi££*ck" - The bloke who's always first to his ccar in ASDA car park (tch tch) regardless of the score with five minutes to go. Has missed three injury time goals this season but has saved enough time to spend an extra quarter of an hour in front of the t.v. at home.
"I thought that Bousham had a good game. Mickey Deverill was disappointing. Roy Bennett should have scored and Neil Illman's goal for Barrow was a cracker. A good win for West Auckland." - The reporter from BBC Online
"A Happy Easter to all my fans." - David Beckham
"A good close game. Barrow were very unlucky to lose this one. If they'd followed the third way rather than route one they might have done better." - Tony Blair (in touch with reality as ever)
"It didn't look any better after fourteen pints of lager." - William Vague (the opposition's double-vision of the future)
"How man, we're ganning o'er the toon. A pint 'f federation and a stottie cake for us tea. Why, I div'ant nae how we didnae score at least fower more the neet like." - The Bishop Auckland Fan.
"I think there's room for improvement."
- A blind man on a galloping horse.
"Move along there. Although there
was a gang of drunken racists at the Orient game shouting obscenities that
I did nothing about, you look quite inoffensive and like you won't cause
me any trouble, so if you don't move along I will nick you." - P.C.Plod
"When it was only three-nil you felt that the
mackerel could catch the trawler's net, but unfortunately the shark is
much hungrier than the dolphin and the seagull knows this" - Eric Cantona
"A very funny read." - Richard Ingham talking
about Reclaim The Holker Street on the Barrow forum.
"A good effort." - posted by Hadrain on
the same forum.
"Haven't you got anything better to do with
your time?"- My girlfriend last night. (Mmmmm, is that
an offer?)
December 17th
December 18th
The focus of Mr. Dein's arguement seemed to be that smaller "selling" clubs would find it nigh on impossible to survive in a post-transfer system apocalyptical nightmare vision of the world. Mmmmm, this was coming from the man whose club made a whacking great £21.5 million profit from the transfer of Nicholas Anelka. So who would be the real losers? Arsenal or Barrow?
In the last ten years Barrow have sold three players for a fee that I can think of. Kenny Lowe, the man himself, was the subject of a then record non-league transfer of £40,000. The buying club was Barnet, then in the Conference, - so hardly a case of the rich clubs financially supporting the smaller "selling" clubs. Neil Doherty went to Birmingham not long after Kenny moved on with Barry Fry. The fee was reported to be again in the region of £40,000, but this appears to be a high estimate based on additional fees received for appearences and goals, and I seem to remember the actual amount that Barrow recived being closer to £10,000. If there had been no transfer system in place, then Barrow would not have received this amount of welcome money, but it is hardly enough to be considered a factor in the difference between Barrow folding and carrying on trading. Those reasons probably belong in a War & Peace type book, rather than an article in an E-Zine.
The third player who Barrow received a fee for was Neil Morton who went to Morecambe for a reputed £5,000. Now, this was a sale borne out of necessity, but again Morecambe are a non-league club and it is not a case of the big fish helping out one of the shrimps. (there's a pun in there somewhere, Ed) And Neil Morton was the subject of Barrow's record transfer buy when he came to Holker Street, costing £15,000 three or four years earlier. And at about the time that Morton came, Barrow also spent money on Jeff Parker, Stuart Humphries and Ian Harold. So over the last ten years Barrow's outgoings on the transfer front probably equate to their income, give or take a neglible amount.
 |
That blows a big hole in Mr. Dein's arguement and leaves us feeling quite smug for having proved our point. The myth that all clubs outside the big name clubs in the premiership and first division are selling clubs is one that has been perpetuated by the media, and more recently exploited by fat cats like Mr. Dein as they seek to hold onto the power that they wield in the modern corpoate industry that is Premiership Football Plc. There are some exceptions to the rule, Crewe Alexander are the notable one. Crewe are often held up by media types and premiership chairmen as the shining example, and it is nearly always Crewe that they talk about, because in fact Crewe are one of the only examples of a selling club. Most transfers do not come about because the selling clubs need the money to survive, but rather that the player is seeking to further his career, and to realise his |
In the Unibond League, Winsford were able to survive financially recently due to a sell on clause placed on their ex-keeper. This provided them with much needed income, but I can not think of many examples where unibond clubs rely on transfer revenue to survive. Indeed, Accrington Stanley have moved into the realms of becoming a buying club. The same was true of Barrow and Chorley in the early nineties, though both paid heavily for such a policy.
In the Yeovil and Rushden Chronicle this week, there was an article saying that the EC and FIFA had agreed a deal whereby clubs will be entitled to 5% of all subsequent transfers on players they have developed up to the age of 23. This sounds a lot fairer to us. Under the present system which Mr. Dein says we should support Barrow would get sweet FA if they found the next Luis Figo playing on a street in Hindpool. Under the system proposed by the EC, they would be entitled to 5% of £37 million which equates to a big bag of reddies. So, no we won't be visiting the FA's website to register our support for a transfer system that means clubs like Arsenal get richer and richer, whilst the rest of us beg for the crumbs that you care to toss us now and again.
December 19th
Gretna At Home - Match Postponed
Preparations are well underway for Raise The
Woof's Christmas Party.
December 20th
The Glass Is Half Full.
December 21st
Calling Out Around The World.