BARROW AFC boss Adam Murray was left to bemoan his team’s lack of finishing prowess once again as the Bluebirds’ wait for a victory this season continued with a 1-1 draw at Kidderminster.
They dropped five points from winning positions during the bank holiday weekend, with an inability to take their chances their undoing both at Aggborough Stadium and in last Friday’s agonising home loss against Yeovil.
Barrow were unable to build on the lead given to them by Innes Cameron’s 15th-minute header while opportunities came and went after Lewis Walker had cancelled out their advantage just before half-time.
As a result, just two points have been gained from the opening month of the season.
Murray said: “It was a good game overall, for both teams, with both clubs in totally different moments of their journey.
“Kidderminster have still got momentum from their promotion and we’re obviously in a moment of rebuilding a whole football club, so it’s a totally different perspective of clubs.
“First half, again we have to be taking our chances because we were creating numerous amounts of opportunities in their 18-yard box that we have to take.
“I felt the only time they caused us any concern was when they cleared a long ball or they put balls down the channel – we never really felt any stress in that.
“But at the minute when it falls in the 18-yard box we’re not the ones on the end of it – they reacted to all the first balls that dropped.
“We need to put the front end of the pitch right, it’s as simple as that.”
This was Murray’s first return to Kidderminster after he left them for the Bluebirds after guiding them to promotion to the National League last season.
It wasn’t exactly a friendly return, with chants of “you’re getting sacked in the morning” one of the few printable chants that were aimed towards him.
While Murray took those in good humour, he took exception to the abuse he received online in the build-up to the game, saying: “You don’t get away with it in any other walk of life apart from football.
“I’ll probably post some of the messages I got this week because they’re disgraceful, and people need to be held accountable for that because it wouldn’t happen in any other walk of life.
“But they do it online and I’ve been here all day and no one has said ‘boo’ to me, so it shows the kind of person [they are] and I feel sorry for these guys that they have to go to those limits.”
Murray was also unhappy with some of the tackles put in by Kidderminster’s players during the game, particularly the one that led to Olly Crankshaw going off injured in the first half.
He said: “They should have been [more than yellow cards]. When people see them back, we have two lads with cracked shinpads in there.
“The one on Olly, he’s had to come off, is in the middle of the referee, the fourth official and the linesman – they’re all three yards away from it and they can’t see how high the tackle is.
“It’s not been good enough and it’s been the same all season.”
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