Marked for Andy Cannon
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market23 Nov 2026
“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 The request is on a desk at Barrow AFC, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Daniel Kelly and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Daniel Barden, and the manager let it.
Match21 Nov 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Joe Rice's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Squad23 Nov 2026
6 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.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Barrow AFC may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match24 Oct 2026
The wait goes on for Barrow AFC
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad26 Oct 2026
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Barrow AFC are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Andy Cannon 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.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Joe Rice gets it from the manager
“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.
Match24 Oct 2026
0‑1 to Barnet, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Barrow AFC are still strangers to each other
20 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Costly mistake from Joe Rice
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Joe Rice knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
In brief
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The dugout
The manager has not finished forgetting Joe Rice's mistake
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Looking ahead
Tom Barkhuizen faces his old club
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Player ratings
Nobody could get near Max Sanders
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match17 Oct 2026
1‑5 to Bristol Rovers, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Match17 Oct 2026
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Barrow AFC and Bristol Rovers in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Daniel Kelly in a row with a teammate
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 dugout19 Oct 2026
Andy Cannon gets it from the manager
“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.
Boardroom19 Oct 2026
Nobody left the Barrow AFC dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑5, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Beaten 5 times: a bad day for Joe Rice
5 saves does not settle the argument about whose fault it was, and the argument will run all week. Goalkeepers carry these scorelines whoever caused them.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Squad19 Oct 2026
A booking nobody needed, on a night the game was already won. Barrow AFC lose a player for the most avoidable reason there is.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match16 Sep 2026
Blackburn Rovers go through and Barrow AFC go home, 0‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Squad21 Sep 2026
7 saves: Aaron Bott was the team
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The terraces21 Sep 2026
It finished 0-3. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
Match19 Sep 2026
6 matches without a win for Barrow AFC
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Barrow AFC are no longer polite ones.
Match19 Sep 2026
6 matches without a goal for Barrow AFC
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 6 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Andy Cannon, and the manager let it.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Joe Anderson 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.
Boardroom21 Sep 2026
Nobody left the Barrow AFC dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Sep 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Barrow AFC close the window on a squad of their own making
29 in and 2 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Andy Cannon in a row with a teammate
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.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Blackburn Rovers have kept their man, and Barrow AFC go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Barrow AFC know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
Market7 Sep 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad7 Sep 2026
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Barrow AFC are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
Josh Nichols is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Barrow AFC had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Norwich City, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Joe Anderson and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match15 Aug 2026
A 2‑0 win over Bromley, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes of Reece Cole at his very best
Marked 8.02. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Barrow AFC.
Market17 Aug 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Adam Phillips, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Andy Cannon beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 14. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Barrow AFC say no to the training-ground money
The plan went upstairs and came back down. Nothing about that will make a headline anywhere else, and everybody who works at the training ground will remember it for years.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The paperwork begins on Aaron Bott
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Barrow AFC have done the hard part with Nottingham Forest, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Danny Rose and Barrow AFC agree another 2 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Marcus Dinanga and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Oliver Murphy has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Anthony Thompson is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Richard Brown has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Henry Morgan has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
Joe Anderson gets it from the manager
“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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Barrow AFC know which stage they are at.