Jen and I were over in the Lake District for a couple of weeks, primarily to take in the Sea Power festival at Muncaster Castle. We’d spent a couple of hours earlier in the day walking the dog up on the fells and with him suitably tired out I thought I’d drive down to Barrow in the evening for their League Cup tie with Lincoln City.
I’d bought my ticket for a tenner online and when navigating my way around the ground I stopped at the fanzone for a burger. There were tributes to former players on the wall and one of them was for Kenny Lowe. I worked with Kenny for Capper Pipes at ICI about thirty-five years ago, although it’s his dad, Kenny Senior, that I’ve a better recollection of. Kenny Junior eventually went pro towards the end of his playing career and subsequently managed Barrow. It looks like he has been doing well managing in Australia in recent years.
Despite already having a ticket it took a while to get into the Holker Street ground. I joined a queue for the main stand twenty minutes before kick-off and still managed to miss the first ninety seconds. A fella behind me was furious, complaining to a steward that “It’s the same every week”. You’d think that if he knew about the difficulties getting in then he’d turn up that little bit earlier.
I spent the first half in my seat at the back of the main stand. The fella next to me was able to give me some info about the Barrow team and when he found out that I was a Middlesbrough supporter we traded memories of Boro players from the seventies and of various pubs in the Teesside area.
Lincoln went a goal up after a few minutes, but Barrow equalized soon after and the teams went in level at the break.
At half-time I went for a drink and discovered that I could walk around the perimeter and watch the second half from the stand opposite. I felt guilty about not returning to continue my discussions with the fella from the first half, just in case he was left wondering if he had offended or bored me, but switching sides gave me the opportunity for more varied photos.
Not a great deal happened in the second half. I watched John Rooney, the younger brother of Wayne, for a while. He had a lot of the same mannerisms as his brother, including that jump and twist reaction when something doesn’t quite come off. I’d been told that he was lacking fitness and that showed, but he put the effort in until being subbed and looks a decent player at this level.
As it was getting late, and I had no real interest in which team won I left on eighty-six minutes. I was less than ten yards outside of the ground when a roar went up that was too loud to be anything other than a home goal, almost certainly the winner. I drove past the ground five minutes later and heard another, more muted, celebration that I took to be the final whistle.
I was wrong though and as I listened to the round-up on the radio, FiveLive reported that the final score was two each and that the tie would be going to penalties. I was a few miles up the A595 by the time Lincoln prevailed to take their place in the third round.
Tags: Barrow, EFL Cup, Kenny Lowe, Lincoln City, Muncaster Fell
Trail of the Lion King 
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