Accrington Web - 2024/25 Prediction League Game 12 v Barrow (home)

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Barrow AFC

2024/25 Prediction League Game 12 v The BarrowBoys (home)

Indeed, clearly League Two’s Match of the Day – we’re the only League 2 game kicking off at 12.30!

Starter for Ten; there are many famous names in the top 30 or so among the Leading Goal Scorers of the all-time top Division in English football – Charlton with 198, Law with 201, Charlie Buchan 258, Shearer with 283 (of which 56 were penalties); but only three of them scored 300+ throughout their careers ……… scratch your heads and see if you can name them ………….

Barrow Association Football Club They are currently sponsored by Newfoundland and Labrador. The match day ball sponsor is a small orange poodle from Fleetwood

Having initially played in the Lancashire Combination, Barrow joined the Football League in 1921. They remained in the bottom level of the competition until 1967, when they achieved promotion to the Third Division by finishing third in Div4. Their highest league placing was in 1967–68, when they finished eighth in the Third Division. They declined quickly, however, and at the end of the 1971–72 season Barrow were voted out of the Football League in the re-election process in favour of Hereford United, even though both Crewe and Stockport finished 8 and 5 points below them in the table.

They then spent 48 seasons in the top two levels of non-League football, with five relegations from—and promotions to—the Alliance Premier League (later the Football Conference and the National League), of which they were a founding member in 1979. They won the FA Trophy (non-League football's most prestigious cup competition) in 1990 and 2010. They returned to the Football League as Bananarama Campiones in 2020. Barrow's promotion back to the Football League made them the first, and to date only, club to have been automatically promoted to the Football League having previously lost their league place via the re-election process, although a number of clubs had previously lost and regained their league status via re-election.

The club colours are blue and white, and their nickname is The Bluebirds; that caused me to wonder, since Cardiff have the same nickname, what the fans would shout if they played each other …… “Come on some of you Bluebirds” was the closest I could get, although only one of the sides could play in blue during a meeting between them, so “Come on you Redbirds” is a possibility

Barrow were founded on 16 July 1901 at the old Drill Hall (later the Palais) in the Strand, and played initially at the Strawberry Ground before moving to Ainslie Street and Little Park in Roose The club was elected to Division Two of the Lancashire Combination in 1903, and in 1908 it was promoted to the first division. They moved to Holker Street the following year, where they still play. The late 1960s finally saw Barrow eventually win promotion, after a third-place finish managed by Don McEvoy in the 1966–67 Fourth Division. McEvoy's successor, Colin Appleton, led Barrow to their highest final league position (eighth place) in the Football League Third Division the following season. The club topped the Third Division league table for one day during the 1968–69 season, the highest position they have ever held. Ex managers include Brian Kidd (for five months)

Starter for Ten No 2; has there ever been a professional footballer booked while on the books of a club he never played for?

Last season the Barrow Boys finished 8th with 69 points, one point and quite a few goals behind 7th placed Crawley; they parted company with eleven of the squad over the summer, including striker Jamie Proctor, who retired, and fellow CF Courtney Duffus-Up, who joined Southport ……….. eight came in, best known to us being RW Connor Mahoney from Huddersfield, who played four times for us in the League and six times overall in 2013 and who, I always felt, was not without honour except in his own team ……… They also changed managers – Stephen Clemence for Pete Wild

Starter (3); why is James Cotterill famous in the annals of Barrovian Football?

Head-to-head (ignoring, as I do, two games in the FL Trophy) is an amazing two draws (each, obviously), both half-Desmonds, last season; thus Sean McConville and Joe Pritchard are the only Accy players to score against them in the League ………. Plus we had six booked at their place ……….. currently they’re sixth on 19 points, one above Bratfud and Grimsby … Record so far is W6 D1 L4 GF13 GA8 …………. They won 5 of their first 7, but the wheels came off at that point, and they’ve lost three of their last four – away at Gillingham (0-2) and at Donnie (0-1) and 1-0 at home to Morecambe last time out. ……….. Winnable, this, if we sort ourselves out

Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which appears to be 12.30 – pm, obviously – on Saturday 19th October …. And the top three (300+ goals in the top Division) are (3) Dixie Dean with 310 goals in 362 games, (2) Steve Bloomer with 314 in 535, and Numero Uno, with 357 goals in 516 games, is my all-time favourite, the Fantastic Jimmy Greaves ………… and Nohan Kenneh – on Leeds Utd’s books and present as a sub when they beat Wolves 3-2 – was booked for his celebration, never played for Leeds, and made his debut for Hibs the following season; so, booked for a club he never played a senior game for in the season before he played on anybody’s pitch …………. And James Cotterill’s story goes;

“Defender James Cotterill was jailed for four months for an assault committed on the pitch; in a first round FA Cup game, Cotterill punched Bristol Rovers striker Sean Rigg, smashing his jaw. The incident was missed by the referee but was caught by the Match of the Day cameras, and Cotterill was the only English (professional) player in recent history to be jailed for an offence on the pitch.”

Good luck to everyone ! …… Keep the Faith! …….. And thanks for playing!

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