BARROW 1 - 2 Droylsden

2002-03-19 - UPL
Attendance: 721
Scorers: Waters

A spirited performance from a well under par Barrow team that saw several regulars missing wasn't good enough to beat a mediocre Droylsden team that fielded 13 players all game.Droylsden had 11 men in green and yellow and two officials in black,namely the ref and liner.Barrow conceded the first goal despite a clear handball by Droylsden number 5 that the ref chose to ignore.Carl Waters then scored a quality strike to level at 1-1.Barrow had few chances and seemed out of sorts probably due to the new faces and players out of position.Early in the 2nd half Hall handled on the goal line and was rightly sent off and Droylsden were awarded a penalty that hit the bar and rebounded to safety.The turning point in the game came when Jones chased a good ball down the wing and was clearly taken out by the opposing keeper with the linesman flagging for the foul.Jones was clean through and it was a cynical late challenge but the ref smiled,awarded a free kick and then booked the keeper who trotted back to his goal smiling.Where is the justice?it was a clear professional foul?The ref and liner then continued their clown act and made some very strange decisions whilst choosing to book Barrow players and turning a blind eye to several elbows and late tackles.Droylsden went 2-1 up with a well worked goal that was finished in style but you cant help thinking if the ref had followed his guidelines it would have been 10 men on each side.It wasnt good to see Holt and Maxfield having a verbal onslaugt at Jones and Waters either.I sense morale isnt good in the team.So another poor game,another poor ref and another sending off not to mention another game lost.With a decent ref and the usual team it could have been a lot different but on paper it'll just go down as a 2-1 defeat.What worries me is the discontent on the pitch and the understandable fans frustation on the terraces.Its a good job theres no pressure to win the league or even to survive because at the moment we are going through a very dodgy patch indeed.Roll on saturday and hopefully we can turn it around.The fans their tonight should be writing to the Unibond to complain about the officials,they know they were very very poor and so do we but whats the answer? such is life i guess!