Friday 2nd April.
Barrow v Newport County.

During the 1960's and early 1970's, The Ironsides of Newport and The Ziggers (later Bluebirds) of Barrow met on fourteen occasions. All were Division Four matches.
County won six, Barrow five with three drawn.

Meetings between County and Barrow since 2010:

2010 / 2011:
Barrow 2-1 Newport County.
County scored first late in the first half when Gary Warren headed home a corner from Danny Rose. Strugglers Barrow shook County after the break with goals from Jason Walker and Nick Chadwick.

Newport County 5-0 Barrow.
A comfortable victory for County which saw them four up at the break. Goals from Gary Warren, Sam Foley and two from Daryl Knights followed by one from Kerry Morgan in the second half shortly after replacing Chris Todd.

2011 / 2012:
Newport County 2-2 Barrow.
Adam Boyes opened the scoring for Barrow on five minutes. Nathaniel Jarvis levelled around four minutes later. Danny Rose put County ahead on seventy three minutes. Three points appeared secured until Ryan Gilligan conceded a penalty during injury time which Richie Baker converted.

Barrow 3-1 Newport County.
Andy Cook scored the games first goal to put Barrow ahead before Ismail Yakubu headed an equalizer before half time. Barrow won this encounter with second half goals from Richie Baker and Adam Boyes.

2012 / 2013:
Barrow 0-3 Newport County.
A comfortable victory for County that saw them take the lead shortly before the break with a fierce shot from Lee Evans.
Two goals from Danny Crow during the fourth quarter sealed victory and he later missed the chance of a hatrick by failing to convert a penalty. Kick off was delayed for over an hour as the referee was held up in heavy traffic.
This was only the second time County had won at Barrow. The other was also a three goal margin of 4-1 during 1964 / 1965.

Newport County 0-2 Barrow.
Who could forget this one. The Rodney Parade pitch was snow covered and over one hundred supporters, including myself, congregated to clear the pitch. It was cleared in time for the match to go ahead. Barrow, who were bottom before the match, humiliated County. Goals from Matthew Flynn late in the first half and from Danny Rowe midway through the second half earned  Barrow an unexpected three points.

2020 / 2021:
Newport County 2-1 Barrow.
This was the first L2 match of the season at Rodney Parade. Liam Shephard put County in front shortly before twenty minutes with his first goal for the club. Lewis Hardcastle levelled for the Bluebirds around twenty eight minutes. Ryan Taylor got his second goal for County shortly after the break which proved to be the winner.

Managers:
Barrow - David Dunn
Newport County - Mike Flynn

Head to head:
Rob Kelly 0 (as assistant manager)
Mike Flynn 1
Draw 0

Some of the players past / present  who've had connections with both Barrow and Newport County: 
Billy Adams
Willie Brown
Bob Calder
Jeff Johnson
Christian Smith
Jamie Devitt

1. Barrow and County have both lost their latest two L2 matches.
2. Despite their low position in the current table, only four times have Barrow failed to score in eighteen L2 matches at their Holker Street stadium this season thus far.
3. Only one of Barrow's latest twenty three L2 matches has finished a draw.
4. During their latest eight L2 matches at their Holker Street stadium, only once have Barrow scored during the first half.
5. Despite their low position in the current table, only three times have Barrow failed to score during their latest ten L2 matches.
6. In nineteen L2 matches played away, County have scored at least once in all of them bar the 1-0 loss at Tranmere.
7. In County's latest twelve L2 matches, only once has more than one goal been scored during the first half.
8. In thirty six L2 matches played this season thus far, on only five occasions have County scored during both halves

Beat Barrow on Friday and we’ll be mathematically safe this season.

The matches against Barrow in the 60s and 70s were of course in Division 4 not 2.

In the home game against barrow lewis hardcastle scored for the bluebirds, the lad has now had to retire with heart problems at the tender age of 21 a real shame for the lad.

Gone for a 1-1 draw, we seem to tacitly loose our way against clubs in the bottom half.

llanwern exile wrote:In the home game against barrow lewis hardcastle scored for the bluebirds, the lad has now had to retire with heart problems at the tender age of 21 a real shame for the lad.

Oh God.

I suppose, if there's an upside to this, it's that medical advancement means more heart defects are detected while the patient is actually still alive. I hope the lad can overcome this crushing disappointment.

Ledley starts today

That's got to be the slowest, most disjointed team we have named in a long while. Where is the creativity coming from? Gambin not even on the bench. Bennett not great on the right of a back 3.

Ugo. wrote:That's got to be the slowest, most disjointed team we have named in a long while. Where is the creativity coming from? Gambin not even on the bench. Bennett not great on the right of a back 3.

No creativity at all !! Especially if Sheehan plays deep.

Dennis not in squad so possibly injured.I would have played DLK and had Benno on the bench instead of Hartigan,freeing up a space for Gambin.

I would suggest, as Gambin played in Slovenia on Tuesday night that he is being rested for Monday after so much travelling.
From. Slovenia to UK ( or Malta) then to Barrow ?

Yes Gambin probably rested but don’t particularly like that lineup

Looks a solid side agree about creativity but look at the squad Flynn builds his teams and success on efficiency and being hard to beat rather than flair. He has a style and will stick to it - I do think he needs wing backs who can cross a ball better to deploy the system though.

Appreciate the updates in work today

Early kick off Bolton drop 2 points, drawing with Colchester.