An away end from 1989, breakfast overlooking Morecambe Bay, and County fans smashing bottles in a car park… it’s Barrow away!
Three tales from Cumbria
Wednesday 1 March 2023
Dear County fans, Stopfordians, and anyone else joining us today, a very warm welcome to your Wednesday edition of The Scarf My Father Wore.
Saturday’s trip to Barrow was awful on the pitch, but as you know, an away day is always so much more than the 90 minutes of football in the middle of it. I’m sure you’ll still enjoy these three tales from Cumbria, courtesy of Dave Thompson, Zak Rothwell-Holland and Jon Waterman.
I’d like to say a huge thank you to Paul and all the team at Colourtone for sponsoring today’s edition. See below for further details on what they have to offer.
Enjoy today’s issue, and a very happy St. David’s Day to all of our Welsh readers. Unless you’re from Wrexham. (Just kidding…)
Des Junior
🎶 “We go to all the away matches, by bus, by train, by car. And we get so pissed before the game, we don’t know where we are.” 🎶
A lyric from a classic County song gave Des Junior a little bit of inspiration for this regular feature - why have one away day review when you can have three! So for every away game County play (well, unless it’s like Plymouth on a Tuesday night), The Scarf My Father Wore will be sending three intrepid reporters out into the unknown to share their tales from motorways and train stations across the country.
Dave Thompson took up his regular seat on Crofter Coaches for the trip to Cumbria.
Up: Woke up at 4.30am excited about going to County, before Chewit’s (Simon Hewitt) wife Lynsey picked me and Will up along with their son Finlay.
Breakfast: I’m currently doing a fasting thing so I don’t eat from 7pm till noon. All part of trying to shift a bit of middle-age spread!
Clobber: Blue jeans, Adidas Manchesters, check shirt, Lyle & Scott jumper and a Lacoste Smock.
Before: Stopped off on Edgeley so Chewit could get his usual supplies from Greggs before heading to the Crofter coach, brilliantly organised by Steve “Scouse” Cunningham.
Outbound: Always fun on the bus. Lots of football trivia questions and general County chatter about how ace we are and what League One would be like. Two bacon butties that I brought with me just about made it to the services. The sweets and crisps were saved for the journey home. God, I sound old!
Pre-match: We stopped at The Sun Inn in Ulverston and met up with the second Crofter coach plus other County fans. Chip butties for us at the pub, brilliant work by Scouse once again who always finds us a great stop-off en route to away games.
Visitors: The away end was like 1989. Awful view of the goal from behind it, but the corner was marginally better. We all said how shit it was but then we all moan about the modern plastic stadia don’t we? There was something about it I quite liked.
First: Wandered about trying to find the best view possible!
Half: A pint in the food section. I didn’t have any of the food but the sausage rolls were excellent apparently.
Second: I moved George’s flag from behind the goal and hung it in the corner where all the scaffolding was. We watched the second half from there and sang songs to Ryan Rydel whilst he was warming up.
Us: Vocal as always but could feel the frustration at the poor performance.
Them: Quiet until the final whistle.
Post-match: Watched the needless baton-wielding bobbies doing their thing outside the ground.
Inbound: Had a good laugh and a sing-song all the way back to Edgeley. We had a smooth run both ways so the time went pretty fast.
After: Stopped for one in the Crofter before Mrs T kindly picked us up.
Bed: Not sure what time it was but I fell asleep in front of Match of the Day, which I haven’t done for a while.
Away day rating: 7/10
There were rail replacement buses between Piccadilly and Lancaster on Saturday, but Zak Rothwell-Holland managed to do the Lancaster-Barrow part of the journey by train, so that’ll do for us.
Up: Woke up at 8am feeling quietly confident about the day.
Clobber: Despite being a teenager, I don’t adventure into the usual away day clothing. So just the blue jeans, North Face coat, and blue New Balance trainers. I made sure to wear blue for that bit of extra luck (which never came).
Breakfast: Before getting the first train from Stockport to Piccadilly we stopped at McDonald’s for breakfast. This supplied the energy needed to get through the two-hour rail replacement coach from Piccadilly to Lancaster.
Outbound: After a couple of hours on the coach, me and my friend decided to spend some time in Lancaster. A quick 10-minute walk into the city centre before we stopped at a Burger King to refill. The hour-long train journey from Lancaster to Barrow was quite scenic. Probably the best views of the day, because the football certainly didn’t bring it. Straight from the station, we walked to the ground, and our first view of Barrow was young County fans smashing bottles in an empty car park and hitting signs with their hands. It really felt like Stockport had come to Barrow.
Visitors: The away end was horrible. Even getting into the ground at 2.30pm, there were no good views left. The goal closest to us couldn’t be seen, no matter how much I got on tippy-toes to try and see.
First: First half was uneventful. A half-chance from the Hussey free-kick but that felt like all that happened.
Second: A double whammy in the second half. Firstly, I was chatting to my friend, before realising a bird had dropped something from above onto his coat (you can guess what had been dropped). Whilst trying his best to clean up (and giving me something to smile about), we go and concede. The day and the game couldn’t get any worse. Then for the last 20 minutes you’d think we didn’t need to score, so poor from many of the players.
Us: County fans were good as usual - even better considering how bad the game was, the atmosphere from the home fans, and the fact there wasn’t much to cheer about.
Them: If County fans had been quiet, you’d have thought we were in a library. I don’t think I’ve heard more silent and simply boring fans than the Barrow ones.
Post-match: Usually when the full-time whistle blows I stay and applaud the players, but for the first time I headed straight for the exit. The cold made me think I was better heading straight for the train.
Inbound: The journey home could have been worse. After doing a long trip to Wimbledon a few weeks prior, me and my mate were accustomed to the feeling of a 1-0 loss and knowing there was a fair way to go before getting home. Arriving back in Lancaster, we had a small wait until we found the coach bus that would take us back to Piccadilly. Finally got home at 9pm and reminisced about the day with a curry to take my sorrows away.
Bed: About 11.30pm, happy that a long and disappointing away day was at an end.
Train (and coach and bus): £35
Ticket: £5
Food and drink: £15
TOTAL: £55
Away day rating: 3/10. An early start and a late finish, one of the worst games of football I’ve seen, and the journey with the bus and the coach didn’t help. But I’d still be more than willing to do it all over again!
Only two members of the Stockport Sippers Society ventured north at the weekend, with Jon Waterman on driving duties.
Up: About 8am. I caught up on the England cricket highlights before thoughts turned to hopefully a County win.
Outbound: The journey was fine. I picked up my fellow Sipper Stuart in Stockport and we set off for Lancaster, where we had a lovely full English breakfast in a café in Williamson Park overlooking Morecambe Bay. It was then on to Barrow via the M6 and A590 without any delays, even passing County’s team coach in Newby Bridge. After parking the car in the centre of Barrow we met up with a friend who lives there, who took us to a couple of pubs (Spoons and Derby Inn) for pre-game drinks which were nice and cheap.
Destination: If it wasn’t for BAE Systems being based in Barrow then I think it would be a lot worse than it is, just a couple of big retail parks and loads of industrial units. The town centre itself was quite small but still had plenty of pubs, and a statue of Emlyn Hughes!
Visitors: The away end was basic to say the least; it had a covered terrace behind the goal with some seats and standing down one part of the side of the pitch. The meat and potato pie was very nice though, and a lot cheaper than Harrogate. The atmosphere was decent at our end of the ground but that was mainly due to the home and away fans being next to each other on the terrace behind the goal.
First: Watched the game on the side which was very poor from both teams with hardly any chances. County looked tired and Barrow battled well and stifled the game.
Second: Second half was much the same with County not creating anything and wasting possession. The turning point was a blatant backpass to the Barrow keeper which the ref didn’t give, before they went up the other end and scored after County lost possession. County made subs after that but it didn’t change anything in terms of urgency and resulted in only one real chance which was a tame shot on target, the only one we had all game.
Us: County fans were quality as ever, singing all game and the away allocation was a sell-out.
Them: The Barrow fans were pretty quiet apart from the hardcore behind the goal next to the County fans and the rest only seemed to wake up when they scored.
Inbound: There was a lot of chat in the car reflecting on the poor performance and how big the next few games are and where points could be won or lost.
Petrol: £15 each.
Ticket: £16
Food and drink: £25
TOTAL: £56
Away day rating: The overall rating of the day was a 7/10, but would have been higher if County had turned up.
So there you have it folks, three tales from Barrow away, and it’s a joint victory for… THE BUS AND THE CAR!
If you’re going to Colchester next Saturday and you’d like to share your away day tales, please drop us a message.
Give your car a lick of paint
Granted, Stockport used to be a little rough around the edges. But the town’s getting a good old lick of paint these days, with fancy new offices, apartments, bars and restaurants springing up. You can’t be driving up and down the A6 in a tatty car with chipped paintwork, so give your car a nice lick of paint too. Colourtone is your go-to company for that. They’ve been servicing the automotive and industrial markets in Cheshire and Greater Manchester for decades, and carry an extensive range of car paint and industrial paints.
Visit colourtone.com for further details.
Photo of the day
Star & Garter, Manchester
Spotted in the bogs.
Today in SK
⚽️ A goal from Paolo di Canio for West Ham knocked Man United out of the FA Cup in 2000-01. See if the Hammers can do the same at Old Trafford tonight over a pint or two at Bask. The game will be shown live on their big screens. 7.45pm.
🍻 Going out for a beer tonight? You can get two bottles of Budweiser for £6 at the Dog & Partridge (Buxton Road, Great Moor).
Never mind Google or Yell.com, we’ve got you covered
STOP! That got your attention, didn’t it? Just a quick one… I’d hazard a guess that at some point in March, all of our readers will use Google or Yell.com at some point looking for a particular product or service. But before you do, please have a quick look at our own directory to see if we have what you’re looking for. A number of great businesses support The Scarf My Father Wore, allowing us to publish fresh content every day, so let’s send a few enquiries their way in return.
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