Barrow v Crewe Alex match thread

[andyg]

Chelmsford comes to mind during our first season back in the league regards bad conditions - one of only three - I think - home games when supporters were allowed to attend. Won 3-0 and Chelmsford went up as champions.

Presumably Cheltenham?

On the subject of Cheltenham their manager has been sacked tonight, and there is a concern they may be too detached before they invest in January after a takeover.

God knows why I said Chelmsford - too much water on the brain

[Big E]

2025-09-21_02-52-03.jpg (595.92 KiB) Viewed 15515 times

Yup, Cheltenham, and the weather was horrendous at the start

[DA52]

Reading the Crew Alexander’s Fbook posts is a revelation of how them and other teams in the league feel about us. We’re only a “Pub team at best,” “A team with no plan of how to play,” “Worst team in the league.”
and “Why do we always get beat by them. “
Nice to see that a few of us have replied and put their arrogance in its place. Excellent.

[Scott5]

Think the wettest day is when we were last in the league playing Bristol Rovers, there were large puddles all over the pitch the ball would float in them would not be allowed now.
[/quote]

I remember one getting called off mid game. I'm sure we were one up against kettering at the time. It was a night match if I remember correctly, the weather was horrific
[/quote]

I remember that night well a certain Mark Cooper was Kettering manager at the time and was dying for it to be off! Don’t think they really fancied it but in the end the ball just stopped dead in a puddle I seem to remember and that was that!

[Hadrian]

Reading the Crew Alexander’s Fbook posts is a revelation of how them and other teams in the league feel about us. We’re only a “Pub team at best,” “A team with no plan of how to play,” “Worst team in the league.”
and “Why do we always get beat by them. “
Nice to see that a few of us have replied and put their arrogance in its place. Excellent.

Did they not notice their team lost??

No need to reply - just enjoy laughing at their sour grapes! They could be candidates to replace Bradford City fans after their regular efforts to try to beat Barrow.

[Hadrian]

In response to earlier posts, look at Crewe's possession yesterday - they lost!

Hard work, strong defence, taking chances matter more.

I see Booty is this week's whipping boy. Give the lad a chance to adjust. Doing better that an outsider reading some of those comments might imagine.

Too many on here too quick to criticise.

[Barrowvianbedlam]

Booty will be sound for us when the team settles and we get back to full strength. Don’t think there’s many that can match his passing range and vision in the squad.

[spirit of 1990]

The look of relief on AWs face at the end

Pre-season and early on I thought Raglan looked a decent player but as the games ticked by he looked out of his depth, disappointing. On Saturday though I thought that was easily his best game for us, did a lot of organising and shouting, Newbys ears must still be ringing
MJW was outstanding, just went about his business quietly & effortlessly. Once Harper can return that midfield will be a lot stronger. I also thought Jacko was an improvement on recent games.

The big disappointments (although not a surprise) were Cameron who looked like he’d just ran a marathon ten minutes after coming on. He also had two opportunities to pass to a player in/around the box but had his head down and ran into trouble. The other is Mahoney, he should be no where near a starting place, probably no where near a place on the bench. Flashes of a good player but that’s all it is, AW (and Clemence before him) must be so frustrated with him.

Whitfield returning and Harper close should have AW feeling a lot better.

[russell_anderson]

The look of relief on AWs face at the end

Pre-season and early on I thought Raglan looked a decent player but as the games ticked by he looked out of his depth, disappointing. On Saturday though I thought that was easily his best game for us, did a lot of organising and shouting, Newbys ears must still be ringing
MJW was outstanding, just went about his business quietly & effortlessly. Once Harper can return that midfield will be a lot stronger. I also thought Jacko was an improvement on recent games.

The big disappointments (although not a surprise) were Cameron who looked like he’d just ran a marathon ten minutes after coming on. He also had two opportunities to pass to a player in/around the box but had his head down and ran into trouble. The other is Mahoney, he should be no where near a starting place, probably no where near a place on the bench. Flashes of a good player but that’s all it is, AW (and Clemence before him) must be so frustrated with him.

Whitfield returning and Harper close should have AW feeling a lot better.

Cameron runs just like Harrison Neal and at the same pace. Both look as though they are running through water!!

[Beanmuncher]

For me, Cameron is a big intimidating presence up front and does cover some ground but I don’t think he has the vision nor the finesse to be our attacking striker. Couple of chances on Saturday to lay the ball off for potential goals - ends up losing the ball. He’s not the guy!

[Main Stand SeasonTct]

For me, Cameron is a big intimidating presence up front and does cover some ground but I don’t think he has the vision nor the finesse to be our attacking striker. Couple of chances on Saturday to lay the ball off for potential goals - ends up losing the ball. He’s not the guy!

The guys been playing with an injury most of the time this season as needs must due to our injury crisis He lacks match sharpness and fitness. Judge him when fully match ft and after a run of 7-10 match starts not the odd twenty minutes off the bench.

[MisterPleasant]

For me, Cameron is a big intimidating presence up front and does cover some ground but I don’t think he has the vision nor the finesse to be our attacking striker. Couple of chances on Saturday to lay the ball off for potential goals - ends up losing the ball. He’s not the guy!

The guys been playing with an injury most of the time this season as needs must due to our injury crisis He lacks match sharpness and fitness. Judge him when fully match ft and after a run of 7-10 match starts not the odd twenty minutes off the bench.

Adam and Craig in commentary thought he looked like he was still carrying a bit of a niggle even now.

[Pedro]

For me, Cameron is a big intimidating presence up front and does cover some ground but I don’t think he has the vision nor the finesse to be our attacking striker. Couple of chances on Saturday to lay the ball off for potential goals - ends up losing the ball. He’s not the guy!

He looks like he is pulling a wardrobe .
To slow.

[Jonty]

Reading the Crew Alexander’s Fbook posts is a revelation of how them and other teams in the league feel about us. We’re only a “Pub team at best,” “A team with no plan of how to play,” “Worst team in the league.”
and “Why do we always get beat by them. “
Nice to see that a few of us have replied and put their arrogance in its place. Excellent.

Crewe finished bottom of the football league the year we got booted out, they then finished bottom again in 78/79 and 81/82 and second bottom 82/83, surviving re-election no less than 7 times in 12 seasons. So whilst we were kicking around the non league for 48 years, they survived the drop and it took both club’s fortunes in different directions for the next half century.

I guess it’s easier to get to Crewe.

[Jonty]

Let's face facts it certainly is going to have to be a shared responsibility scoring if we're going to stay in this league as I can't see any of our current strikeforce getting into double figures. My main cause of concern is our ball retention. It's basically non-existent. Too many times there's no one available in a bit of space to receive a simple forward pass in midfield and we end up with an aimless lofted ball into the corners. It's never a good option especially the way we're set up and we need to stop doing it. As welcome as that win was yesterday the quality of all round play needs improving upon massively. Possession, Possession, Possession should be the working title for this coming week's training schedule. If we've got the ball they can't score but we possibly can.

I think game tactics are changing and possession football is on the way out from the top level down. The risk of moving the ball around in your own half and losing possession is not rewarded by creating chances at the other end. Whing (and Wild before him), prefer a direct approach with quick counter and set pieces are giving us better chances.