Accrington, Shall We?

Accrington Stanley (H) - League 2 - 8thMarch 2025

If you don't prepare your Café Latte with organic, unhomogenised, grass-fed Water Buffalo milk, you'll only be good enough to serve coffee in Barrow Corporate Hospitality. Reimagining classic adverts in the style that would outrage the usually level headed gear stick jockey and money farmer Jeremy Clarkson made me think of times past, when coffee was Nescafé in a polystyrene cup and how this fixture has a classic non-league ring to it. We are both established League clubs now, and I am including Barrow in that. Have we flirted with relegation this season? Or are we as a fanbase just channelling our inner Richard Lewis paranoia after a particularly heavy night on the sniff? After our brief dalliance with the top of the table earlier in the season, we've slipped into a solid mid-table position. After two seasons of relegation battles and two seasons of being in playoff contention, it's a little discombobulating to be this relaxed with eleven games to go. We crave drama here.

Accrington, however, are still looking over their shoulders, with the fear that the two objectively worst teams in the League somehow find form against the odds. Despite some of the comments about their performance I've read today, they'll have enough to stay up. Who knows, we might not even gift Morecambe 3 points next week. *Insert joke that Ged Garner is contractually obliged to play here.

As we approach kick-off, the shoots of spring are definitely in the air, if not in the goalmouths. Accrington haven't travelled in numbers, but they are making a respectable noise. We make a solid start to the game and take the lead on 14 minutes. An in-swinging Whitfield corner sees Pressley rise like Mark Salmon and head the ball down to Duru who sticks out a leg, deflecting the ball into the goal from close quarters and notching his first goal for Barrow and his first professional goal. After he hit the post Tuesday night, it's fair reward for his recent performances. We continue to dominate the half without really creating any more clear-cut opportunities. Gotts picks up a deserved yellow for snapping one of theirs like a Kempston Joystick after a long session on Daley Thompson's Decathlon.

Half-time sees Accrington go all Carlisle transfer window, bringing on 4 substitutes, delaying the restart by what seems like 45 minutes. "That's full time, ref!" But unlike Carlisle, the changes have made a difference and Accrington put us under a sustained period of pressure, interrupted only by a very serious-looking injury to Paul Farman who goes down in agony. Oh, he's OK actually. The miracle is completed when a centre from Linus Van Pelt is met with a snap shot from Charlie Brown only to see Farman fling up a glove and tip it over the bar. Such was the quality of the save, Accrington simply gave up, with the remainder of the half much more comfortable, and it was no surprise when we increased our lead on 78. A centre from Whitfield was met by the impressive Pressley to nut the ball into the empty net before the advancing keeper. Pressley was deservingly given the man of the match award, although evergreen Sam Foley could easily have pipped him to it, with another Cadillac performance. It ends 2-0 and it's a comfortable victory.

Back-to-back wins after the Carlisle horror show is just the tonic we needed (how have they taken 6 points off us, someone bell Eileen Drewery). It's time to put on the sweat pants and baggy stained t-shirt and embrace our mid-table lifestyle for the next few weeks. Pass me a hotdog and a beer.