Holker Street Newsletter 27 - 22nd December 1997

We did it, we won a League game at Holker Street, yes, I had to sit down as well! Quite a bit of news to report this time, there’s the welcome return of the news from the Evening Mail, although the spectre of the rugby league/football ground share is not yet dead, and Holker Old Boys were stuffed 7-1 away at Prescot Cables.

I had a couple of days off last week so I haven’t had the opportunity to include everything I wanted to, so there will be another edition before the chap in the red suit calls, no, I don’t mean the official receiver.

BARROW 2 GAINSBOROUGH TRINITY 0
Barrow had four players suspended (last week's three plus O'Keeffe) but had Moran in midfield on loan from Southport. There was also comment on Radio Cumbria about interest from Stockport and Macclesfield in Paul Jones which suggested we might get a fee. The BAFC Soccerline described the result as a comfortable performance. Barrow dominated the game and could have had several more.

Scorers Mark Coates 48 and Lee Cooper 65. Of interest was Barrow played in their away shirts. Anyone know why? Thanks to Paul Darragh and Jim Whitton for this.


UNIBOND LEAGUE PREMIER DIVISION, 20 DECEMBER 1997
Accrington Stanley 3 Spennymoor United 0, Altrincham 3 Marine 1, Bamber Bridge 1 Blyth Spartans 4, Barrow 2 Gainsborough Trinity 0, Bishop Auckland 3 Lancaster City 1, Colwyn Bay 2 Radcliffe Borough 1, Guiseley 4 Frickley Athletic 0, Hyde United 4 Alfreton Town 1, Leigh RMI 2 Emley 1, Runcorn 2 Chorley 3, Winsford United 0 Boston United 0.

P W D L F:A Pts
BARROW......................24 15 4 5 37:15 49
Bishop Auckland.............24 12 7 5 49:33 43
Altrincham..................24 11 4 9 42:28 37
Runcorn.....................23 11 4 8 43:31 37
Boston United...............22 9 10 3 27:19 37
Guiseley....................22 9 9 4 35:26 36
Hyde United.................23 8 9 6 40:31 33
Colwyn Bay..................21 9 5 7 30:31 32
Emley.......................20 9 4 7 34:28 31
Winsford United.............18 9 4 5 21:15 31
Chorley.....................24 9 3 12 34:47 30
Leigh RMI...................16 8 5 3 23:13 29
Gainsborough Trinity........19 8 4 7 23:20 28
Accrington Stanley..........26 6 10 10 31:35 28
Spennymoor United...........21 7 6 8 27:34 27
Marine......................19 7 5 7 26:26 26
Frickley Athletic...........22 7 5 10 24:33 26
Lancaster City..............25 7 5 13 34:47 26
Blyth Spartans..............21 5 7 9 24:29 22
Bamber Bridge...............21 5 5 11 26:41 20
Radcliffe Borough...........22 4 5 13 24:43 17
Alfreton Town...............21 2 4 15 14:43 10


THEY SEEK HIM HERE, THEY SEEK HIM THERE, ....

You may remember that in previous Newsletters I have written about Eddie Kennedy the ex-Barrow player who played for Napier City Rovers here in New Zealand and has done a bunk after signing a new contract with Napier. Well, this appeared in the latest Napier City Rovers programme.

It’s now confirmed that the disappearing man, Eddie Kennedy, who failed to return to the Blues (Napier) for the new season, despite signing a contract to play in the 1997/98 (New Zealand) National League season, has moved on again. He is now reported to be somewhere in the USA.


GROUND SHARING BACK ON AFC/RL AGENDA
Evening Mail, 20 December

It has emerged that a fresh and substantial cash offer is being made by entrepreneurs for Barrow RL's cash troubled Craven Park Stadium. This bid is well in excess of £1 million, could be the club’s last chance to sell the ground for development. If this opportunity is seized, the next obvious step would be for the rugby league club to move in with AFC at Holker Street. This mooted ground-sharing scenario is not new, and in the past has produced a whole range of emotions from both sides of the RL/AFC divide, but this time around the financial difficulties faced by both clubs might make people’s minds concentrate more on the situation. True Barrow AFC are at the top of the League, and yes, Barrow RL have better days ahead of them once their merger with Carlisle has a chance to get bedded down, but the perennial cash problems associated with small clubs refuse to go away, and will continue to haunt both operations in this town, barring a miracle.

Three years ago this newspaper campaigned for change at Craven Park, and the club have made superhuman efforts to turn things around. We make no excuses for running that campaign, but 34 months down the road it is time for a rethink on the whole situation. The Evening Mail believe that it could be time to jettison idealistic hopes of a return to former glories at Craven Park. Many now say those glories belong to the past and fans should look forward instead of backwards. This coming Monday, we reveal the background of the latest cash bid for Craven Park, and we sketch a possible blueprint for the future. The word from the developers is that the clock is running on this latest cash offer. WE SAY it's a good deal the town should go for it, but you, our readers and sports enthusiasts of this community, deserve to see all the nuts, bolts and screws on the table before any new RL/AFC glueing together gets OUR consent. After all, over the years, we are the ones who have funded them with our cash are the same who will be expected to go and do the same in the future.

Thanks to Paul Darragh for sending this.

Derek Wilson has also sent this on the subject:

A merger of Barrow AFC and Barrow RLFC now looks very likely. There will be a major article about this in the Evening Mail on Monday. A summary of the points is: Craven Park will be sold to property developers (not Stephen Vaughan) for £1.4 million. This will be spilt 50/50 between the two clubs. Barrow AFC will use this to buy back Holker Street from Stephen Vaughan (and hopefully a bit left over). The ground will then be put into a trust for the two clubs. If Barrow are promoted into the Conference then they become eligible for a grant for further ground development. Likewise, the rugby club are eligible for a grant of UKP200,000. This money will be needed as the Sports and Leisure will have to be demolished, the pitch is not long enough for rugby league. I don't know the timing of all this, but it is not imminent. Likely to be done in about a year. Concerns over the state of the pitch are lessened by the fact that rugby league is now played in the summer. The feeling is that the pitch could cope with the two playing over the winter if some more money was spent on it.


OTHER NEWS
Thanks to Derek Wilson for the following:

The club has benefited from an injection of UKP10,000. This has been given by a local widow, whose late husband was a great fan of the club. She has not been named yet, at her request, but an announcement is likely in the New Year. She will not be joining the board, but a member of her family may do. Two other local businesses are reported to be very interested in getting involved with the club.

Paul Jones - he has been watched by both Stockport and Macclesfield. It is unclear whether he is on a contract at Barrow or not. He will be signing non-contract forms with Stockport and making an appearance for them in mid-week. This means he can still play for Barrow while Stockport take a look at him.

A really good win today with both goals in the second half, from Coates and Cooper (Morton suspended). The defence was solid, with Johnston described as outstanding. Steve Moran, on loan from Southport, made his debut appearance in midfield. A crowd of about 960 is very good for the last Saturday before Christmas.

Finally, it's good to see that the club are not just thinking of themselves. There was a collection at half-time today for Stuart Humphreys which raised about UKP250. A tremendous gesture by the club and the fans.


BARROW v WINSFORD UNITED
By Allan Ledward, the Winsford and Middlewich Guardian

Winsford United manager Dalton Steele has preached words of caution to Blues fans after watching his side make a dramatic return to form at top side Barrow on Saturday. First-half goals from Paul Wheeler and Peter Byrne rounded off an emphatic performance by the Blues following a disastrous run of results. And boss Steele admitted last week's dour defeat at Emley forced him into taking action to stop the rot. Steele revealed how he gathered his squad for an emergency meeting for players to air their views on the team's downward spiral, but Steele refused to be drawn into title talk after watching United crush their Cumbrian rivals.

He said: "I don't look at the table and think that we're so many points behind Barrow and we can do this or that if we win so many games. Things go wrong when you do it that way. I just plan for the next game we've got coming up and think that we'll be all right if we take care of our own business. I think many people thought we'd get turned over at Barrow, but basically, we just forget about everyone else and get on with what's important to us. I had a phone call from a reporter from Barrow before the match and he was telling me how badly we'd been playing recently. I just told him I'd be going there to enjoy myself and I certainly did that. We're not fearful of anyone and I believe that on our day we can beat the best in this League. We tend to make problems for ourselves. We got together last week and had a long talk about what's been going wrong in the last few weeks. We'd been losing matches because of injuries and other factors but the Emley game was just too much. It was a dismal performance without any fight, but at Barrow we just went back to basics and started to fight again. I told them to go out and have a go and in the first half we did more than enough. I didn't know how the result would go but I was very confident that the lads would play well. It was very noisy in the changing room before the game and when we went out and started to play football on the floor I think they were a little surprised by it, but if we beat teams like Barrow and then lose to the smaller sides we won't be up there at the end of the season. We've got to grind out results home and away. Our pitch is difficult to play football on and we have to work hard to get behind teams. The players have got to be mentally tough and we can't afford to carry anyone. I need a squad of 16 players who will perform in every game."

But Steele admitted he is still hoping to bring in at least two more players to add strength to his squad. This Saturday the Blues are again put to the test when promotion hopefuls Boston United visit Barton Stadium. Steele added: "They are a side looking to get into the Conference and they've got the ground and the big name players, but they'll have to fight if they want to take anything away from this game. Results are the most important thing for us now. We've shown that we can entertain and now we need points. Hopefully we can get the knock-out punch and take all three."

Thanks to Richard Postlethwaite for this.


NEXT WEEK’S FIXTURES
Friday 26 December: Gainsborough Trinity v Boston United, Marine v Winsford United, Radcliffe Borough v Hyde United

Saturday 27 December: Alfreton Town v Bishop Auckland, Altrincham v Leigh RMI, Bamber Bridge v Accrington Stanley, Frickley Athletic v Emley, Guiseley v Blyth Spartans, Lancaster City v Barrow AFC, Runcorn AFC v Colwyn Bay


NORTHERN PREMIER LEAGUE 1983-84

Pl W D L F A Pts
BARROW . . . . . 42 29 10 3 92 38 97 Promoted: APL
Matlock Town . . . 42 23 8 11 72 48 77
South Liverpool . . 42 22 11 9 55 44 77
Grantham . . . . 42 20 8 14 64 51 68
Burton Albion. . . 42 17 13 12 61 47 64
Macclesfield Town . 42 18 10 14 65 55 64
Rhyl. . . . . . 42 19 6 17 64 55 63
Horwich RMI . . . 42 18 9 15 64 59 63
Gainsborough Town . 42 17 11 14 82 66 62
Stafford Rangers. . 42 15 17 10 65 52 62
Hyde United . . . 42 17 8 17 61 63 59
Marine . . . . . 42 16 10 16 63 68 58
Witton Albion. . . 42 14 14 14 64 57 56
Chorley. . . . . 42 14 11 17 68 65 53
Workington. . . . 42 14 9 19 53 57 51
Southport . . . . 42 14 8 20 57 74 50
Worksop Town . . . 42 13 8 21 57 74 47
Goole Town. . . . 42 12 10 20 59 80 46
Morecambe . . . . 42 11 12 19 59 75 45
Oswestry Town. . . 42 11 8 23 66 97 41
Buxton . . . . . 42 11 6 25 52 91 39
Mossley. . . . . 42 9 9 24 47 74 33 [-3: ineligible player]

New entries for 1984-85:
Bangor City, relegated from the Alliance Premier League

Copyright (C) Russell Gerrard and the RSSSF