Stephen Clemence has issued a rallying cry to Barrow‘s supporters as they make their home return after three straight away games.
The Bluebirds have recorded as many losses on the road after playing Chelsea in the EFL Cup, before losing to Gillingham and Doncaster Rovers in League Two action. Despite the slump in form, they still remain in fourth place in the division, just three points behind The Gills ahead of this weekend’s fixtures.
Clemence’s side welcome Cheltenham Town to Furness, with Clemence wanting the fans to match the atmosphere the last time they were at Holker Street in the win over Newport County. He told the North West Evening Mail: “We’re looking forward to getting back in front of our fans. We are hoping they can be our 12th man and really drive the boys on.
“We know that we’ve go to bring a performance to get the crowd with us if you like, but if we do that and the crowd go with it then I think we will make it a difficult day for Cheltenham.
“It’s only two weeks ago since we were there, and we were all feeling really positive about things.
“We’d just beaten Newport, we were going off to play Chelsea, and it was a really great day for our supporters.
“Now we are going to have to bring that sort of performance again, like we did against Newport.”
Town come to Barrow as they seem to be heading towards a crisis, with fans unhappy with recent performances, despite their win last time out against Accrington Stanley. The club is also on the market, with the two largest stakeholders in the Gloucestershire side ready to sell their shares, according to Jon Palmer.
Cheltenham were relegated last season and have fared okay so far, but are well off the pace of making a return to League One at the first time of asking. Michael Flynn’s side are currently placed 16th with 10 points on the board but have been beaten the last two times the sides met.
Clemence was eager to emphasise that his side have had a good start to their season, adding: “We’ve had three tough away fixtures. Obviously, it doesn’t get any tougher for us than Chelsea.
“Then we go to Gillingham and Doncaster and yeah OK we lose the games, but we definitely weren’t out played on the road.
“What it has showed me is that those two teams we have just played will be among the favourites in this division to go up, and I think we can more than compete with them on our day.
“We’ve got 16 points for the first nine games, if we can win tomorrow, which will be a tough game, of course they all are, then we will be in a very good position in terms of points and in the league table.”
Writer’s View
Stephen Clemence is right to ask for his supporters to give it their all when they finally return to Holker Street tomorrow. Barrow are on a three-game losing streak and having the fans behind them will undoubtedly boost the confidence of the players if they have been knocked by the recent results. They have been a brilliant team, especially at the back having conceded less than every other side bar AFC Wimbledon, who have played three fewer games.
They are favourites going into the game against Cheltenham, with the mood around the club turning sour both on and off the pitch. They may have got three points last time out against Accrington Stanley but it was far from a solid performance against one of the current bottom two. Flynn needs to try and get a convincing performance under his belt and where better to do it than on the road away to one of the best sides in the division so far?
Football journalist with The Real EFL since 2023. A 2024 Multimedia Journalism graduate from the University of Salford, Lewis specialises in Salford City FC and EFL coverage.
