Barrow AFC owner set for talks with Edmondson

Casson wants to discuss the club’s poor start to the 2015/16 National League campaign, however, the Bluebirds owner insists Edmondson’s job is currently safe.

The US-based businessman urged fans to rally around the manager and his squad, who host high-flying Eastleigh on Saturday hoping to bounce back from Monday’s miserable 3-1 defeat at lowly FC Halifax Town.

AFC sit 18th in the table, having earned just seven points from their opening seven games, although their squad has already been hit by illness and injury.

Barrow started their campaign with a 2-1 home success against Dover, which preceded heavy away defeats at promotion contenders Grimsby (4-1) and Forest Green (4-0). A 1-1 home draw against Guiseley was followed by a 2-1 reverse at fancied outfit Cheltenham, who netted a late winner.

They then secured a 1-0 home triumph against Southport, but at Halifax they threw away a golden opportunity to record their first away win of the season by suffering a late collapse which saw them surrender the lead and ultimately fall to defeat.

Casson said: “I think I need to personally understand what’s going on.

“When I last left, just after the Dover game, everything in the garden was rosy. The world was happy, we’d won and it looked like the team we’d put together was what we thought it would be.

“And since then we’ve gone out and lost four out of six games, and I need to know the reason.

“I just want to hear what Darren has to say. It’s basically one of those meetings that you can’t do by telephone because you have to look the person in the eye and you have to hear what he will tell you about how all this is going to turn around.”

Casson’s unscheduled visit will see him meet up with Edmondson on Friday night.

The Texas-based Barrovian will also take in Saturday’s game with Eastleigh and the subsequent home clashes against Lincoln City (September 15) and Aldershot (September 19).

Casson expects Barrow to produce a ‘massive response’ against Eastleigh and improvement during the next three home games.

Edmondson was appointed Barrow boss in December 2013 and led AFC to Conference North title glory last season.

And when asked if Edmondson’s position as AFC manager is currently in doubt, Casson responded: “Not at the moment.

“I need to see that he’s a man with a plan. Pressure tells you a lot about a person – how they deal with it, how they react and what plans they make.

“In the overall scheme of things, while it’s serious it’s not a vast amount of pressure, right? It’s not staring a relegation battle down the muzzle of a gun. It’s not that kind of thing at the moment.

“What I want to see is, under what I consider to be a moderate amount of pressure, what plans he puts in place, how he implements them and how the team subsequently improves – and see what happens.

“My belief at the moment is that he deserves our support, based on what has happened in the past. At the moment he deserves the opportunity to work his way out of this.

“I’ll be around if he needs anything or quick answers to questions and be right there to help implement them and I’ll be around to give him my opinion.

“I understand the fans are probably very disappointed, as am I – I’m a fan. And it’s at times like these we really need their support.

“Darren deserves our support and I expect the fans to get behind him and we’ll hopefully come out of this together.”

Casson has previously outlined the Barrow squad’s big potential and cursed his club’s early bad fortune with respect to key players – such as Dan Pilkington and Andy Cook – being sidelined through injury, plus Danny Livesey’s unjust red card at Forest Green which could be argued condemned Barrow to such a resounding loss.

Barrow’s play has certainly shown some encouraging signs, with Edmondson naturally frustrated that his men did not take anything from the Cheltenham and Halifax games based on his side’s displays, although he has also criticised his team’s inability to kill off the opposition and the errors that have led to cheap goals being conceded.

“I think it’s just so totally unexpected,” said Casson.

“I’m that type of personality that when things don’t go as I expect I need answers as to why and I need them personally.

“I’m basically looking for his (Edmondson's) assessment of where we are at the moment.

“I know where I thought we were before and after the Dover game and that was my last personal interaction with the team. Since then, obviously things haven’t gone well.

“There are two games in that spell that one would reasonably expect that we probably should have won. Cheltenham away and Halifax away, we had the opportunities to win both of those games and we did not conceding late goals.

“That’s very unlike us and I need to understand what’s happening there.”