Previous games against Bolton Wanderers have been few and far between, as Phil Yelland reveals ahead of Tuesday night's meeting.
Tuesday night’s fixture between the Barrow and Bolton Wanderers is the first time that the two clubs have engaged in a league meeting at First Team level.
Previously, our encounters have been in the Lancashire Senior Cup (on four occasions) and one tie in the FA Cup, apart from some pre-season friendlies over the years.
I am sure many older fans will remember the meeting in the FA Cup Third Round at Burnden Park in 1991 when we went so close to snatching a draw against Wanderers, who were in Division Three at the time. Their winner came from Tony Philliskirk, though Billy Gilmour so nearly equalised with just 16 minutes left.
Our first ever competitive meeting came at The Strawberry at the end of September 1902 in the Lancashire Senior Cup Second Round. We had beaten Rochdale Town 4-2 to set up the meeting with Wanderers, but sadly on the day they triumphed 4-2.
In 1911, we travelled to Burnden Park in late October in Round Three of the Senior Cup, having won at Rochdale and at home to St Helens Recreation in the previous two rounds. We lost out at Burnden Park to the only goal of the game.
There was plenty of entertainment in November 1936 when Wanderers visited Holker Street in Round Two. We had defeated our Division Three North rivals new Brighton in Round One but The Trotters ran out 5-2 winners on their visit to Cumbria. Top scorer that season, Willie Ouchterlonie, grabbed one of our goals, with Frank Betteridge converting the other.
Our most recent meeting here came in Round One back in November 1967, as we were establishing ourselves in Division Three and Wanderers were a division above. That night they included in their side Charlie Cooper, who was to join us less than two years later. We won 4-1, with strikes from Jim Mulvaney, Peter Bebbington, Roy McCarthy and an own goal from Geoff Roberts completing the scoring.
We went on to beat Manchester United 3-1 at Holker Street in the next round thanks to goals from Mick Hartland (two) and a rare strike by Brian Arrowsmith before losing to Burnley by the only goal of the game at Turf Moor.