Phil Yelland dips into the archives to take a look at Barrow’s previous visits to Colchester ahead of our Easter Monday encounter.
Easter Monday sees us make our first ever visit to The JobServe Community Stadium to play Colchester United. Our previous trips to play The U’s have seen us play at their old ground at Layer Road.
The Bluebirds met Colchester there five times in the Football League - once in Division Three and on four occasions in Division Four.
Our first visit in November 1961 ended in a 1-1 draw, with Gordon Brown scoring our goal that day. When we visited again on New Year’s Day in 1966, we drew once more – this time it was 2-2 and the Barrow scorers were Jim Mulholland and Dave Worthington.
Our first and only trip to Layer Road in Division Three took place at the start of September 1967 when we lost 3-2 – Malcolm Edwards and Bobby Knox got our goals.
Our next trip to Essex to face Colchester was in late April 1971. Back in Division Four, the game saw us fall to our heaviest defeat at the ground in the league – a 4-1 loss, with Scot Jim Irvine scoring our consolation goal.
The following season, in February 1972, we won our only game at Layer Road. The 1-0 victory came thanks to a goal from striker John Rowlands – and it was The U’s first home defeat of the season.
We also have met twice in what was then the Vauxhall Conference (now the National League). In October 1990 we went down 1-0, whilst on the final day of the 1991/92 season we lost 5-0 as Colchester celebrated winning the title as Barrow were relegated.
Let’s hope for our second win at Colchester on Monday and a triumph at the first attempt on their new ground!