Barrow Boys Battered

And so finally it looked like we might actually see a game of football. No pitch inspections had been announced so confidence was high that the game with Barrow would get the go-ahead and we set off from King's Cross with almost a spring in our step.

Except that Martin was suffering one of his periodic bouts of what he reckons is gout - his foot was painful and he nearly didn't turn up. Nurofen for breakfast then!

Originally the game was to have been televised by Premier Sports but they'd been put off by the recent bad weather and had decided not to show it after all. However the kick off would still be 4pm.

Of course the upside of this meant that we'd have an extra hour or so in the pub. Tony met Martin and I at the station - we left Martin to hobble to the ground and we headed for the Quaker. John W wasn't far behind us.

Confusingly there wee two beers from the Potton Brewery - Shambles Bitter and the Village Bike - both 4.3%, identical colour and almost identical taste - OK but not brilliant.

Other beers included a brace from Allendale Brewery - Tar Bar'l and Swift (the former was a nice stout but the latter was not nearly as nice as the pint we'd had in N22 a month or two ago), North Yorkshire Xmas Herbert and Crystal Tips, Thornbridge Lord Marples, Tom Wood's Old Timber and Black Country Fireside Bitter.

There were no real hoppy beers on today so we wandered up to Number Twenty-2 where Tony could get a pint of White Boar.

There was not a great deal that caught our attention in terms of new brews so John and I tried the Anchor Steam Liberty. This is a beautiful beer in bottles - one of the first really hoppy beers from the US that I ever tried but it was pretty indifferent here - worryingly it had a slight wheat-beer taste so i hope Ralph hadn't got his pipes mixed up!

(left) Aaron Brown shoots - and scores!

We caught a taxi down to the ground and I picked up my press ticket from the ticket office. The club shop was full of Barrow fans who were having to get their tickets there rather than at the away turnstiles.

Once pitchside the reason for this was clear as the club had put the away fans at one end of the South stand, more or less just below the control box. Presumably the number of travelling fans didn't seem that great considering and perhaps didn't warrant opening the away end?

I latter found out that the away end was actually out of action due to burst pipes - no toilet facilities etc - and that is why they were having to share with us.

However they were first to have cause to cheer as Barrow twice went close in the first ten minutes - Russell tipping one shot over and another narrowly missing.

Thereafter it was all Darlo with the young striking duo of Smith (M) and Main working hard and being ably supported by the likes of Smith (G), Bridge-Wilkinson, Verma and Arnison.

On one attack, the Barrow keeper came right out to the edge of his box to prevent the ball getting to Michael Smith but he failed and Smith was able to turn and lob the ball in from a tight angle. Just what we needed to settle the nerves.

Not long after this, Barrow had Sheridan sent off for what looked a meaty two-footed tackle on Gary Smith. Some thought it was a harsh decision but it did look dangerous from my perspective.

(right) Curtis goes for goal

Darlo had been well on top before this but with the extra man we had total control of the ball and kept attacking the Barrow goal until finally Bridge-Wilkinson doubled our lead with a cracking shot from just outside the box.

Two-nil then at the break and you'd expect the second half to follow the same pattern. But of course not - Barrow went narrowly wide of Russell's post soon after the restart.

Darlo didn't learn and stood off Louis Almond, allowing him room to shot from about 20 yards - a sweet shot that flew past Russell. Cue anxiety.

Thankfully the two-goal advantage was restored within minutes as Aaron Brown was teed up by Gary Smith and his shot from the edge of the box took a deflection which left the Barrow keeper helpless.

From then on Barrow had little to offer and Darlo dominated but failed to add to the scoreline with both Smith (M) and Main going close on a few occasions. Main put in a lot of hard work and with maybe a bit more composure would have scored.

Barrow were far from the best team seen at the Arena this season and perhaps we should have made it tell more but I was happy to simply get three points again. There was some good periods of play where we knocked the ball round well and we now need to start doing this on a consistent basis.

And it was a great shame that Premier Sports decided to give this a miss as it was a good game to watch and might have shown some stay-aways what they're missing.