The Darren Edmondson Thread

[Moonwatcher]

Apologies if I come across as an old relic harping on about "the good old days" but this debate about Edmo always gets me thinking about the late, great "Sir" Ray Wilkie, and the reasons he is still held in such high regard around these parts. In no particular order:

Reason no.1 - FLAIR. Ray's teams always played flowing, expressive, attacking football, and he filled his teams with players who had good technical ability - Kenny Lowe, Danny Wheatley, Micky Carroll, Neil Doherty, Peter Farrell. I don't remember much hoofball under Sir Ray.

Reason no. 2 - STEEL. Wilkie knew that sexy football on its own wouldn't win anything. You had to have a strong, ruthless streak too. Kevin Proctor, Glenn Skivington, Tony Chilton, Ken Gordon. All hard as nails. Winners and leaders. They brought character and resilience into the teams.

Reason no. 3 - MOTIVATION. He was never a tactical genius, but every player in his team would run through brick walls for him. Application, passion, and effort were never questioned under Ray Wilkie.

Reason no.4 - JUDGEMENT. Ray recruited a lot of players, many from the Northeast, during his tenure, and the vast majority of them came down here and did a great job for Barrow. Always had a good eye for a player.

Reason no. 5 - LOCALS & YOUTH. Despite the influx of players from outside the area, Ray was never afraid to use local talent. Apart from the obvious ones who formed the nucleus of the Trophy winning side, Ray gave several local lads a decent crack of the whip - Stuart Todhunter (admittedly a West Cumbrian), Ian Burgess, Colin Woodburn, Stuart Mason, David Knowles, to name but a few.

Reason no.6 - BUDGET - The club didn't have a pot to p*ss in back then, and yet Ray Wilkie was able to assemble some of the best footballing teams in the club's history. Quality players wanted to come and play for Ray, for the fans, and for Barrow AFC. They didn't come for the money because the club didn't have any.

I do realise it's unfair to draw comparisons with a folk hero, arguably our most successful and best-loved manager in the non-league era. I do understand that times have changed, but do those qualities have a familiar ring to them? They should, because they are some of the most common words used on this forum lately. Football is not a science. If you do the simple things (see above) and do them well, with passion, belief and integrity....you get to have a stand named after you.

[Moonwatcher]

We should have signed Andy Bond

Indeed we should.

[The Real Slim Azza]

We should have signed Andy Bond

Indeed we should.

Shoudl have bent over backwards to get him her instead off messing about offering him peanuts

[geobarrovian]

Indeed we should.

Shoudl have bent over backwards to get him her instead off messing about offering him peanuts

Seeing him play for Chorley the other week I can't help but think he is precisely what we're missing, superb passing range and made things happen in the middle of the park, he would have been such a common sense signing but I guess we didn't think the centre midfielders we were signing would turn out like this, hindsight eh.

[The Real Slim Azza]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/34616934

Barrow In Furness based Striker joins rivals Southport on loan after spenidng 3 months with Morecambe.

Shame he isnt on the books at Carlisle.

[Van Der Nipper]

Edmo has tried to sign Jack a few times.

[Cokey]

Edmo has tried to sign Jack a few times.

Can't blame him for not signing on. He's probably thinking he'll end up a bench warmer like Newby getting the odd 5 mins here or there.

[The Real Slim Azza]

Edmo has tried to sign Jack a few times.

With 3 strikers potentially out this saturday we need some kind of plan.

[Cokey]

Edmo has tried to sign Jack a few times.

With 3 strikers potentially out this saturday we need some kind of plan.

We could always play 5-5-0 and go for the draw...

[The Real Slim Azza]

With 3 strikers potentially out this saturday we need some kind of plan.

We could always play 5-5-0 and go for the draw...

I think we need to try something new though Cokey.

[DaveP]

that's been his mind set for weeks!!!

[mickmike wilson]

Good post Moonwatcher.

[Steeley]

I cant get my head round how Newby goes from 'not good enough/too young' etc etc to being thrown on to save the game on saturday, not fair on the lad.

[The Real Slim Azza]

I cant get my head round how Newby goes from 'not good enough/too young' etc etc to being thrown on to save the game on saturday, not fair on the lad.

Laughable isnt it.

Here we are at the moment chasing another young winger because our young winger is too young. Yet hes young enough to be thrown on in an attempt to get something out of the game.

[The Real Slim Azza]

Our wins this year

2-1, 1-0, 1-0, 2-1, 3-2, 1-0

All by one goal. Just.

How many games this year have we dominated a side and put them to the sword?