Phil Yelland explores Crawley Town's previous record on trips to Barrow ahead of this weekend's League Two meeting at The Progression Solicitors Stadium.
Saturday’s meeting with Crawley Town will be our third against them on home soil and we will be looking to extend our unbeaten record.
The first meeting took place in April 2009 as we battled to ensure survival in Blue Square Premier having won promotion the previous May. Things did not look good at half time as we trailed 2-0.
However, immediately after the interval, half time substitute Nick Rogan pulled a goal back and then Steve McNulty hammered home the equaliser from the penalty spot, only for Town to re-take the lead. In the dying seconds, it was Nick Rogan who popped up to level in a scramble to secure a point.
Twelve months later, Town visited on a Thursday night as we wound towards the end of the league season. We still had a trip to Wembley in the FA Trophy Final to look forward to, but Crawley had just missed out on the play-offs and it’s fair to say their then boss Steve Evans was not happy about the long midweek trip. Barrow won 4-1 – Nick Chadwick, Simon Wiles and Jason Walker scored, supplemented by an own goal from Ben Smith.
The following season, Town were to be crowned as Blue Square Premier champions and visited Barrow in early October. The game came a year to the day after The Bluebirds had won at Crawley thanks to a Jason Walker penalty. He was again on target from the spot to claim a point for Barrow on the hour after Matt Tubbs had scored for Town just before half time.
Let’s hope we can keep our run going on Saturday.