Your Club needs you.

As a Barrow AFC fan of many years, I can honestly say that whilst the team may not be consistent at present, they are certainly playing some entertaining football of late.

At the time of writing they sit 11th in the Blue Square Bet Premier, just 8 points off a place in the play offs which could see the Bluebirds fighting it out to reclaim a place in the Football league.

The problem is that to simply survive at this level, money is key and although the corporate side has come on leaps and bounds in recent years under the stewardship of Martin Lewis the real earner for the club is, as has always been the case, paying punters through the turnstiles. 

Now for some stark honesty - some of the crowds this season have been terrible, and although a total figure of 1084 was recorded for the game on the 24th of January when a ten man Barrow came back to claim a point against high flyers Grimsby, when corporate guests and away fans are taken out of the equation only around 900 Barrow fans went along to support the team.

These numbers, quite simply, are not good enough long term to sustain a team at this level. Several figures are bandied around, but the simple truth is that the club needs to be attracting around 1500 paying punters through the gates at each game to give the club half a chance of growing and developing into real promotion contenders.

The people of Barrow and the surrounding areas would do well to look at the plight of Darlington and Kettering, both of whom could be out of business by the end of the season and in recent history the likes of Scarborough, who in 2005 were playing in the Conference Premier but now ply their trade in the North East Counties league which is a similar level to which Holker Old Boys play. 

In my eyes their are two problems. One is that as a country we are in a recession, and as a result families have less disposable income to spend, the other is the proliferation of the satellite generation who see supporting a football cub as something best done from an armchair or a bar stool.  Barrow AFC as a club are working to meet people in the middle with the first issue, by offering discounts for families and other initiatives but the second issue is something only the people who consume their football in this way can change.

To sum up I would like to challenge the football loving people of Barrow to do just one thing. On Saturday the 18th of February, when Barrow play Kettering Town, rather than going to the pub or tuning in to Sky/ESPN get yourself down to Holker Street and give it a go, take a mate with you.

You never know, you might even enjoy yourself.

Please feel free to give me some feedback via the comments section below.