Add another name to the list: Sliema Wanderers have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Kane Hemmings. The answer from Barrow AFC has not changed — yet.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Niall Canavan 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Barrow AFC can pretend not to have heard.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 9 combined actions and a mark of 6.72, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
“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 Ryan Croasdale.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
1 for Ben Jackson, marked 7.10, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
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.
“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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Rekeem Harper has improved at 26, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 88. Newport County had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
“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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Reuell Walters has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
A mark of 7.30, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Matthew Jones was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Barrow AFC dressing room was either.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
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.
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Matthew Jones was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Barrow AFC dressing room was either.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Barrow AFC has been clear about where Elliot Newby stands, which is more than many ever get.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Barrow AFC scored in the 91th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Two goals and a mark of 8.95 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Tyler Walker. 2‑1 against Gillingham, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Florian Bianchini. 1‑0 against Notts County, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is MJ Williams’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Barrow AFC needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Chances created: 8. Nothing on the scoresheet and everything in the match: the pass before the pass, over and over, until the defence stopped guessing right.
“Nobody outside is coming to save us.” It was short, it was not comfortable, and by all accounts the Barrow AFC squad were quieter afterwards than they had been all season.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Tranmere Rovers held the lead for 1 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Barrow AFC answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
Niall Canavan 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.
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Matthew Jones chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Something was said to Florian Bianchini and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Tranmere Rovers in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Niall Canavan has written the date down.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Barrow AFC the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Isak Alemayehu did not need any: 7.95, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Tyler Walker. 2‑1 against Accrington Stanley, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Matthew Jones could afford to be generous.
The words a physio says slowly. 14 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.88 on the card, and the Barrow AFC support went home talking about one name.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Isak Alemayehu'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.
21 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Barrow AFC lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad26 Oct 2026
12 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Matthew Jones on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Fleetwood Town in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The words a physio says slowly. 29 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“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.
At 23 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
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.
Niall Canavan 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.
36 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Barrow AFC lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
“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.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Barrow AFC the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
44 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Barrow AFC lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Cheltenham Town left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Rekeem Harper has improved at 26, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Kane Hemmings commits to Barrow AFC for another 1 years.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Jake Richards is the division's best young player this month
At 19 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Barrow AFC will try very hard not to make too much of it.
The words a physio says slowly. 52 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 87th, and Crewe Alexandra spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Alexei Rojas Fedorushchenko is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Brandon Powell has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
12 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
In brief
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
Player ratingsBen Whitfield beats them one at a time
The words a physio says slowly. 60 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
7.93, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
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.
“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.
67 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Barrow AFC lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
At 19 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The goal that put Oldham Athletic ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Barrow AFC equalised, 4 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 2‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
74 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Barrow AFC lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 21 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. KAA Gent have kept their man, and Barrow AFC go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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 Ryan Croasdale.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Katia Kouyaté has his answer from Barrow AFC; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
81 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Barrow AFC lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Barrow AFC have done the hard part with Southampton, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Barrow AFC asked and Westerlo said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
12 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Matthew Jones after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The words a physio says slowly. 90 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hull City have kept their man, and Barrow AFC go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Matthew Jones left the room before anybody could ask which.
The words a physio says slowly. 98 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Everything agreed with Luton Town, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
“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 Tyler Walker.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Matthew Jones after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Barrow AFC have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
105 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Barrow AFC lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Barrow AFC had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Swansea City, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Alexander Russell is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Oliver Wright 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Edward Ellis 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Richard Wright is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
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.
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 system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
36 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
Squad3 Aug 2026
7 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.
Barrow AFC have made the call to Swansea City. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
A loan enquiry to Queens Park Rangers: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.