EVEN nine years on injured legend Gaz Barlow’s last gasp winner for Barton Town in the solitary goals victory at promotion rivals Pontefract Collieries in March 2011 remains a significant goal in the club’s history.
Both teams had to win to maintain their NCEL Division One promotion bids – defeat was not an option for Barton who were sitting in no man’s land in tenth (14 points behind second-placed Yorkshire Amateur and 25 behind runaway champions Staveley MW) prior to kick off – although they admittedly held several games-in-hand.
Former Barton manager Dave Anderson, who looks back at the crucial win in the latest ‘My Greatest Game’ watched his men survive wave after wave of attacks from Simon Houghton’s swash-buckling fifth-placed Pontefract side which contained stars such as Danny Frost, Ryan Poskitt, Luke Smith, Luke Forgione, Paul Haigh, Duncan Bray and Jason Bentley.
Frost had one goal-bound chance cleared off-the-line, while Carl Fothergill missed an absolute sitter after Showman Poskitt’s beautifully caressed through ball set him sprinting clear and into a one-on-one situation with Barton’s heroic stopper Dave Bramley.
Barton rarely threatened late-on until the limping Barlow, who is arguably the club’s greatest player, sparked jubilation with seconds to go as the visitors won the three points in a smash and grab raid, leaving the Colls in despair.
Barlow’s winner galvanised Barton and served to be a sliding doors moment for both clubs. The defeat to Barton was to be Houghton’s final home game in charge of the Colls as he was sacked for reasons unrelated to results to make way for Leeds United legend Brendan Ormsby less than a week later.
Barton lost two, drew once and won 11 of their final 14 fixtures to overtake Paul Lines’ brilliant young Yorkshire Amateur side, whose last day defeat to Askern Villa denied them promotion, into the second automatic promotion spot following a 5-0 victory at Louth Town in their final fixture.
Promotion placed Barton into the top flight of the NCEL for the first time in their history, enabling Anderson to lead the club further success over the next five years.
Saturday 5th March 2011
Pontefract Collieries 0-1 Barton Town (Barlow 90)
The Teams
Pontefract Collieries: Sam Dobbs, Dean Twibey, Luke Smith (captain), Luke Forgione, Lee Stratford, Andy Broadbent, Ryan Poskitt, Paul Haigh, Duncan Bray (Carl Fothergill 65), Danny Frost (Lee Garside 69), Jason Bentley. Subs unused: Josh Wright, Nick Handley, Stefan Furness.
Barton Town: Dave Bramley, unconfirmed, unconfirmed, Chris Garth, Ash Dexter, Mike Gibson, Dave Gordon, Andrew Jackson, Mark Griffin, Gareth Barlow, Tom Matthews. Subs: Unconfirmed apart from Steve Young.
Referee: Steven Holroyd
Attendance: 61
“It was myself and (assistant manager) Mally Parker’s first full season at Barton and we didn’t have a big budget. When we took over halfway through the previous season they were something like fourth from bottom and had just been beaten 5-1 by Askern. I remember it being a really bad winter and we had to wait nearly a month for our first game which was against Leeds Carnegie interestingly. The first aim was to stay up which we did comfortably. In our first full season the club wanted a top six finish. Staveley ran away with the league and from an aspirational point of view we overachieved.
“Whilst on the 30th August we beat Yorkshire Amateur 3-1 when Dean Windass scored a hat-trick, we struggled early doors. As time went on, you will know that Barton’s ground is renowned for getting badly waterlogged. We got into a situation where we were getting games called off, but other teams were playing. In March and April we were on constant catch-up.
“Around February time we signed Mike Gibson from Scarborough Athletic who was local and also Ash Dexter, who stayed right through to when myself and Mally left (in 2016). He was phenomenal player for us and in that run at the end of that season him and Mike Gibson were instrumental from a defensive point of view. They were tremendous and made a big difference. We also signed Simon Spencer who was at Goole. Attacking-wise we had Gaz Barlow and Richard Medcalf. You don’t get many players like Gaz Barlow these days. He was ever so loyal to Barton even though he could have easily gone onto other clubs. The goalkeeper Dave Bramley was also key as he saved us on a couple of occasions and I thought he was the best goalkeeper in the league at the time.
“When we got into March there was a lot of pressure because in every game that we dropped points in it meant we dropped further and further behind those higher up. Every game was ‘well if we don’t win this, we’re out of it’. Nobody really took any notice of us either. Although we had six games-in-hand, we were getting further and further adrift and going into the Pontefract game we could not afford anymore defeats. It was such a big game and it was a must-win game for both sides. A draw would not have suited either team and Pontefract were certainly the favourites.
“The game was a pressure situation and there were quite a few chances. The pressure seemed to be more on Pontefract as we were under the radar because of where we were in the table. We became under the cosh in the second half. I remember Danny Frost’s chance which Pontefract thought had gone over the line. From where we were, I didn’t think it had crossed the line and I think it was Ash Dexter cleared it off the line. Pontefract’s managers were on the pitch claiming it had gone in. Carl Fothergill should have scored as well.
“We always had a goal threat and Gaz Barlow speaks for himself because of his goals record. If I remember correctly we had used all our subs and Gaz actually got injured – it was possibly his hamstring. He spent the last 20 minutes hobbling about to just make the numbers up because we couldn’t get him off. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but if we had been able to make a substitution, I would have taken Gaz Barlow off because he was absolutely prolific and we wanted him fit for the run-in.
“Him getting injured caused us a problem because in the last 20 minutes we were effectively playing with ten men and we were just under siege.
“We were probably wanting the final whistle to go, but we got a corner in the last minute. What I distinctly remember was that a cross had come in and typical Gaz just threw himself at the ball and headed it in from close range. There was pandemonium because we couldn’t believe we had nicked the win.
“It was a classic away match performance. Pontefract had the better chances throughout the game, but we defended brilliantly and we caught them right at the end of the game. One-nil with a 90th minute winner was such a tremendous result.
“It was a remarkable victory in the circumstances and it gave us the confidence to go onto what we achieved and we became a team who were difficult to beat as we slowly but surely racked the wins up and climbed the table.
“It is a very important victory from my time with Barton and there was also the 2-1 win at Eccleshill United in the penultimate game of the game. The Pontefract game and the Eccleshill game stand out.
“There is no doubt that the Pontefract win kicked-started our season without a shadow of doubt because it was the start of an unbelievable run. In April we had eight games to play, but Yorkshire Amateur only had a couple. We basically still had to win every game to even have a chance of winning promotion.
“We won at Shirebrook with Gaz scoring again in the last minute. We beat Askern, we beat Leeds Carnegie and we beat Bottesford.
“We had a massive stroke of luck because on the day Yorkshire Amateur finished their fixtures, we lost to Emley at home. Had Yorkshire Amateur beaten Askern Villa (they lost 1-0), they would have been promoted, not Barton.
“We had done ever so well, but then we lost. I remember sitting in the dressing room and we were absolutely distraught because we had blown it. Because there was no Twitter then we did not know how Yorkshire Amateur had got on, but because of how the league table looked, we thought it was a home banker and that we had blown it. Nobody even tried to find the result out.
“It wasn’t until 5.15pm when we were all in the bar and we got something through to say Askern had beaten Yorkshire Amateur 1-0. It was one of the supporters who broke the news as when our result had been phoned through to the league, Askern’s result was mentioned. We couldn’t believe it because we had been given a last chance.
“We were left with two games to play and we needed to win both to be promoted. Yorkshire Amateur had finished and they turned up to watch us at Eccleshill hoping we would lose because they would be promoted.
“We were 1-0 up and Eccleshill equalised in the 88th minute. It was Ollie Banks who was son of their manager Ian Banks. He was going to be signing a pro deal for someone like Barnsley, but he was playing on the day. I had a lad called James Tomlinson in the centre of midfield and he did a man to man job on him.
“Ollie Banks’ goal was a wonderful strike. Those from Yorkshire Amateur went mad and they were running on the pitch celebrating because they thought they had gone up. We thought we had blown it.
“But we went straight up the other end and scored straight from kick off. Andy Jackson scored. We went through a whole range of emotions from despair to euphoria – not just at Eccleshill, but against Pontefract, Shirebrook and Emley as well.
“We then played Louth, whose manager Paul Walden resigned prior to the game, on Bank Holiday Monday and we went from one extreme to other as we won 5-0 at home to win promotion. It wasn’t a walk in the park as it took us until the 40th minute to score and before that Louth had a one-on-one situation in which Dave Bramley saved us again. The first goal totally eased the pressure and we won the game quite comfortably. These are the days you remember and there was a lot of people there – over 200 – a crowd Barton were not used to as it was the first time Barton had gone up into the Premier Division.
“It was a great achievement and it was one of our stand-out achievements at Barton alongside the Cup Finals and finishing second in the Premier Division in 2014. The promotion stands out more because we were so far adrift in March and every game was a pressure situation.”
Dave Anderson was interviewed by James Grayson