A Look Into Histories

A LOOK INTO HISTORY TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY THREE

BARROW – THE 1971-72 FOOTBALL LEAGUE SEASON

Barrow FC were formed in 1901 and joined the Football League in 1921. They never really achieved great success though in 1953-54 posted a record attendance of 16,874 at their Holker Street ground in a 2-2 draw with Swansea Town. The club topped the Third Division league table for one day during the 1968-69 season but soon returned to the lowest tier in 1970. In 1971 they had to seek a successful re-election and it happened again but in 1972 they were not so fortunate and the process went Northampton Town 49 votes, Crewe 46, Stockport 46 and a 26 apiece tie with Hereford United from the Southern League and memorable that season for a brilliant win over Newcastle United in the F A Cup thanks to Ronnie Radford. Clubs felt that was Barrow was isolated travel wise and a further issue was the F A demanding that the introduction of a Speedway Track be taken away which didn’t happen so the second vote ended with 29 for Hereford United and 20 for Barrow. They were relegated to the Northern Premier League. To gain access to the NPL they had to promise to remove the Speedway track but this did not happen until 1974 and it never really was a financial success. After a real roller coaster period in non league football, in 2020 they won the National League and were automatically promoted back to the Football League.

Our Match Programme is yet another in my collection v Southend United and was for Barrow’s game with that club on February 19th 1971 which was to be their original final Football League season. It was an interesting read and included the magazine Football League Review. The Editorial “Looking Ahead” hoped that the club would not be taking panic action as it would increase problems and rarely solved them. Did someone know there was trouble ahead? Two pages gave plenty of news on Southend United including reference to Peter Taylor just a professional for twelve months having been signed from Canvey Island FC. “ Chatter Box” filled five pages and mentioned that the BBC had been at the ground wondering how the club survived ! All results including the Reserves in the Lancashire League were in but no League table. The teams were on the back. Barrow won 2 1 in front of 2,068 with goals from Eddie Garbett and Steve Calvert.

An interesting aside is that, in 1972, the mighty West Ham Speedway ceased and their licence transferred to Barrow who took on the “Bombers” nickname.

Barrow returned to the Football League in 2020 as National League Champions.