Barrow are down to the Blue Square North after a spell of five years playing in the top-flight of the non-league. Small squad size and relative lack of resources eventually caught up with the Bluebirds this year after they had managed a number of narrow escapes in the previous campaign. The mood around the club was already quite down ahead of the start of the season after a very poor completion of the previous campaign and the relative lack of reinforcements in the summer. Dave Bayliss added some good pros like Garry Hunter and Sean McConville to the squad but he barely had enough players to start the campaign. They were off to a slow start and won none of the first seven games but gradually things started to get better as four wins in seven games lifted the team to mid-table. The physical presence both at the back and in midfield, added to the usual goalscoring threat of Adam Boyes made Barrow an unspectacular but pretty effective and tough to beat side that did not give any of their opponents an easy ride. However, that little run soon wore off and the Cumbrian side found themselves bottom of the table on Christmas after going eight games without a victory, including some depressing defeats at the hands of local rivals Stockport and Gateshead. Bayliss was using his motivation skills to get the team in shape but the lack of talent at his disposal was hampering the team badly. Yet, sometimes Barrow would put some extremely solid and well-drilled displays that secured them wins over top sides like Newport County and Luton in the early weeks of 2013. On the other hand, the Bluebirds also had the capacity to complete collapse and suffer battering like a 6:1 defeat at Luton, a 8:1 thrashing at Mansfield and a 5:2 drubbing at Southport. These big defeats were having an impact on the morale of the team but to be fair to the players, they were bouncing back well and got on an encouraging run of form in March when they secured home wins against Tamworth and Macclesfield along with a win on the road at Dartford. At that stage it looked possible that the team will beat the drop with the gap only a few points and the momentum with them. Yet, things did not work out this way as key games against Ebbsfleet, Hyde and Stockport were not won before an embarrassing 4:0 defeat at Barrow ten days before the end of the season all but confirmed the demise. It would be a logical conclusion to a testing and difficult season in which Barrow gave it a good go but it was just not enough to survive in what is becoming an increasingly competitive and demeaning league.
