Marked for Raul Oprea
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market15 Oct 2029
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Barrow AFC, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad15 Oct 2029
Matthew Pennington and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad15 Oct 2029
5 new faces, and Barrow AFC are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Squad15 Oct 2029
Words at Barrow AFC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raul Oprea is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout15 Oct 2029
The manager makes an example of Raul Oprea
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Looking ahead15 Oct 2029
Fleetwood Town next, and one man in the Barrow AFC dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Market15 Oct 2029
Reece Cole linked with a move away
The name of Reece Cole keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Barrow AFC say nothing, which says plenty.
Market15 Oct 2029
3 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Barrow AFC could get for him.
Squad15 Oct 2029
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Barrow AFC would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match29 Sep 2029
No end in sight to Barrow AFC's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Barrow AFC has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad1 Oct 2029
Santiago Montaña was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match29 Sep 2029
No clean sheets in sight for Barrow AFC
4 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Match25 Sep 2029
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Match29 Sep 2029
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout1 Oct 2029
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad1 Oct 2029
A mistake Taite Holtam will not forget
Goalkeepers do not get to make mistakes; they get to make goals. He made one, he knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
The dugout1 Oct 2029
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad1 Oct 2029
Words at Barrow AFC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raul Oprea is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 Sep 2029
10 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Match22 Sep 2029
Chastening afternoon for Barrow AFC
A 0‑4 beating by Exeter City was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Match19 Sep 2029
The small margins put Barrow AFC out
Out, 0‑5 to Bolton Wanderers, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
The terraces24 Sep 2029
Anger at Barrow AFC spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
The terraces24 Sep 2029
0-5. Going out of a cup is one afternoon; going out like that is a week of phone-ins, and the manager will hear every one of them.
Match22 Sep 2029
4 matches without a win for Barrow AFC
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Barrow AFC are no longer polite ones.
Squad24 Sep 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Barrow AFC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout24 Sep 2029
The manager makes an example of Taite Holtam
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Boardroom24 Sep 2029
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market21 May 2029
Only the photograph left for Shaun Rooney
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Shaun Rooney will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Barrow AFC the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The dugout21 May 2029
Raul Oprea: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Barrow AFC have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad21 May 2029
A row about effort at Barrow AFC
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nico Valentine was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad21 May 2029
Matthew Pennington and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The dugout21 May 2029
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Market21 May 2029
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Barrow AFC, another week without a signature from Shaun Rooney.
Market21 May 2029
The Kaio Magno talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Barrow AFC know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout21 May 2029
Billy Phillips knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Barrow AFC, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad21 May 2029
Danila Rulev: “I am not a substitute”
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Barrow AFC will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.