In the 1997-98 FA Trophy Barrow beat St Albans 2-1, then in the Third Round despatched Conference side Northwich Victoria 1-0 at Holker St to set up a quarter-final tie at the other end of the country. It was a day that will never be forgotten by those who made the 700 mile round trip...
DOVER ATHLETIC 1 BARROW 1 FA Trophy Fourth Round 14 March 1998 by Michael Gibson
It was the worst possible draw. Such a long way to travel. Surely it would be asking too much to expect many Barrow fans to make the journey to the very edge of the kingdom. How wrong could you be! The locals must have thought they were being invaded by a small nation on the other side of the globe. They weren't wrong as over 1,000 Barrow fans spent up to twelve hours travelling almost the entire length of England and back again for just ninety minutes of football. Add to that hundreds of exiles from other parts of Britain and maybe a few from abroad and parts of Dover were turned into Holker St for the afternoon. Being an exile myself I only had to make the relatively short trip from London. At Charing Cross station at 10.45am there were Barrow supporters arriving on the station concourse from all directions. I took the Connex South Eastern fast service to Dover Priory station, a train so speedy that it took one hour and forty minutes to cover a distance of just over seventy miles. Two hours before kick off and the town centre of Dover was already heaving with Barrow supporters. Every pub was a mass of blue and white and the atmosphere had to be seen and heard to be believed. After two pints, one good, one indescribably awful, it was time for something to eat. I asked for fish and chips but I was given a lukewarm fish and some raw potatoes. It's a good job there are plenty of litter bins in Dover. To get to the ground you have to follow a narrow footpath through a graveyard, go into an unlit tunnel that is probably a mugger's paradise on a dark night, cross a playing field, ascend a flight of steps, climb a stretch of road which is steeper than the north face of the Eiger, up a second flight of steps, another street this time steeper than Mount Everest, a third flight of steps and finally the turnstiles. Inside the ground there's a big dip in the terracing and the only way to see the pitch if you're standing near the halfway line is to bring a periscope or to be fifteen feet tall. The ground was already quite full forty-five minutes before kick off. There was no segregation but Barrow fans were directed to one end of the ground where we all congregated with an air of expectation that you could almost touch. But it was a nightmare start for Barrow when goalkeeper Farrelly sliced a backpass and pulled a hamstring which left him hobbling round the penalty area in agony for the rest of the match. Barrow didn't get into the game for the first fifteen minutes by which time both Higgins and Jones were already in the referee's book. But it started to look good when Marsh's free kick bounced high off the defensive wall for Coates to put Barrow one goal in front with a superb overhead kick. Dover's Adams got himself booked just after this. Then he tried to amputate Dave Higgins' leg, a second yellow card offence for which he had to go. With Dover down to ten men Barrow dominated the rest of the first half and really should have increased their lead. Barrow paid the price for sitting back on their one goal lead in the second half when Farrelly was beaten by a low, powerful shot from Henry which gave Barrow's goalie no chance. Will they ever learn? Marsh squandered a chance to restore Barrow's lead and although Barrow pushed men forward as full time approached, the winner never came. Originally appeared as 'A Thousand Bluebirds over the White Cliffs of Dover' in issue 037 - November 1998