Barrow v Torquay United 21st April 2009

Those who are continuing to support the manager are perfectly correct to do so at this stage of the season, and there is most definitely no case for saying that he should be dismissed because of the habitual poor end-of-season run.

However, based on what I have seen in the recent games versus Kettering (albeit a good win), Crawley and Salisbury, our style of play has become even more one-dimensional and predictable than it was earlier in the season.

There is logically one person responsible for that, and I have to say that his tactical knowledge and ideas are really very limited. I know that he is a comparative novice and should receive both time and encouragement to learn, but that is of little consolation when it appears that we are about to fail again.

We may well beat Burton comfortably on Sunday if it can be believed, as many do, that they will fall apart out of sheer nerves and desperation after being so far ahead in the table.

With the players at our disposal, though, it should never have come to this. Yes, I know that the manager is the one who has assembled them, and fair play to him for that. Sadly, he seems to have little idea how to use them to the best advantage.

Shattered having returned an hour ago though unable to sleep, I'll keep it brief.

Barrow were by far the better side in the first half looking extremely dangerous with their two very mobile centre-forwards. Time and again they broke away down our left and I suspect that, rather than a knock, was the reason for Dsane's early departure and the switching of Carlisle to the left - incidentally where he had started the game before switching after 10. Most of our attacking play in that half was of the tried and trusted variety to which we have become accustomed, though doubling up on Sills, Barrow had done their homework. Stevens, I felt, added some urgency to our play toward the end of the half, but it was clear we would get noothing from the game unless we upped it considerably in the second half.

And up it we did. Wroe came in to the game a lot more in the second period and some of his link up play with Carlisle and Stevens was of high quality, and as my two driveshare companions, ealinggull and ChrisH also felt, he covered practically every blade of grass, manfully assisted by Hargreaves who, as well as taking the goal extremely crisply in to the keeper's bottom right corner, was putting in a very good shift. It was good that the long one to Sills now formed part of an attack where that was an option to mix it up rather than the sole outlet. Sturrock also looked lively.

That said, chances weren't exactly thick and fast for us, a couple of ooh's and aah's as the ball went in to their box with nobody on the end of it, the best chance being when McNulty put over his own bar when either side of him Carlisle and Sills might have got the nod had it been our day - were all we truly had in that second half, despite overwhelming possession.

The draw was a fair reflection of the total of the two halves. Friendly locals in the "Cross Bar", seriously poor drumming, good company, nice statue pic, a reasonable burger, dodgy motor and Burton now to stuff.

A very nice club to visit. The people were very friendly. Some of our lot (the dickheads) haven't quite worked out this non segregation malarky just yet. Boys. The idea is to watch the game and have a bit of banter with a set of fans who might see the game a little differently than yourselves. Swearing at and abusing home fans in their own ground when there isn't segregation isn't really the done thing.

I can't really expand that much on Rob's report other than to say that it was a much better second half performance than the first half when we were dragged all over the place by their mobile front two pairing.

I heard two stunning quotes during the game from Torquay "fans". One shouted to Tim Sills "Sills, you're too old and too slow, f**k off" and another said "with any luck we'll be rid of Buckle by Monday". Quality stuff. All of them should be eating leaves on a misty Rwandan hill rather than be allowed to watch football.

Anyway here are a few pictures of last night's outing!

Starting with breaking a local by-law by defacing the Laurel and Hardy Statue in the nearby town of Ulverston.

I don't think for a minute that they would have the intelligence to survive like that, how would such sub primates know which leaves are nutritious and which ones are not?....................two weeks without a MacDonalds and they'd be stuffed! ;D

Funny to see McHeavily named as a sub last night...................in Barrow In Furness of all places. Was there a member of the Royal Family on hand to smash a bottle of Champagne over him had the manager wanted to "launch him" last night or was the reason he wasn't utilised because they could only get the "Royle Family" and a bottle of Brown Ale?

Thanks for the great pictures Chris, I really must learn to make better use of the settings I have on my camera. Before I went digital I used a Minolta 7000 a real camera.When I first went to digital I just bought a small basic cannon point and shoot one.

The photographer in me wanted better and I went to a Fuji 7000 and then to the one I have now the Fuji 9500. The problem is I have got lazy and just leave it in program mode. That is the reason some shots I took at Ants game were a bit burred due to a slower shutter speed than what was needed for action shots.

Looking at the ground makes you understand why we need to get back into the football league, I'm sure it might be a pleasant ground to visit, but when you think of the grounds we used to play in, then you have to ask do we really belong in the league, the answer has to be a big no for me.

Peter I would rather have views posted without breathing spaces than not having views at all

Thats where there appears to be some confusion, and why some people are wrongly blaming everything on Paul Buckle.

You rightly mention "Players at our disposal". Players who we have managed to get in to do the job at this level. Sillsy is a quality example of this.

Unable to cut the mustard in previous attempts at League 2, however can probably be seen as one of the top strikers at this level. Therefore Paul Buckle has done a tremendous job in getting Sills to the club in the first place and in getting him to extend his contract.

Sills has done his job for the most part of the season with 20 odd goals.

Bucks has quite rightly picked him just about every game and he has delivered the goods, ie goals, in many games and provided numerous assists in others. However there have been games quite recently when he, and several others, have missed glorious opportunities to score which could and perhaps should have won us the game. This in the end is one of the reasons why we are in the position we are in. So to say there is one person responsible for that is wrong, in my view. Buckle has selected a good squad and if those players let him down at times then he can hardly be responsible for that. I know you will argue that he brought them in in the first place, but we have to remember what league we are in, we cant get Ryan Giggs, or even Stuart Fleetwood, we can only get those who would be willing to play in our league and for that he has assembled a good squad.

He has made substitutions and changed the line up on several occasions, but some and some of these players have failed to deliver the goods, Green is the perfect example of this. He shows that he has potential and some argue that he should start more etc, but when he has started, or come on he hasn't quite lived up to expectations.

You yourself mentioned the Salisbury game. How the manager can take any responsibility for not winning that game is beyond me. 3 penalties awarded and an example of very poor defending from a normally reliable defender. The responsibility for that remains firmly on the players shoulders.