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welcome to the give 'em beans Blog
Saucy, tasty and your mother loves them on toast, but that's enough about the writers. Beans is back to tickle your Barrow (Barra) bones for the first time since the early naughties. An all new team of bright young upstarts is joined by a few dusty relics of Give ' Em Beans past to bring you a brand new but old fanzine, by the fans for the fans. So join us on journey though Barradise with whatever we can cobble together to brighten an otherwise dull hour of non Barrow related existence.
latest posts
Three Pigeons, Three Goals, Three Points
I’m splitting this match report into two themes. First, the actual match report, which, to manage expectations, won’t be rich in detail. This particular Beans reporter is often having a piss when the big moments happen. (Halifax’s first goal: “Was that us or them?” I asked the fella next to me as we both pissed up an old Pop Side-style bog wall. “No idea.” “Nah, me neither.”) Or I’m just gormlessly watching the game, incapable of processing any real detail of it. I could give
4 days ago
Double Gloucester
The flowers have been in abundance in the Barrow AFC garden recently — praise dished out to all quarters as we got off our knees from our crap start and started swinging a few punches to let the National League know we’re here. But as every gardener knows, you have to be eternally vigilant against weeds and pests. And so it was that we took a break from league action to get up for the Cup and the visit of Gloucester City. The visitors arrived courtesy of their rugby club neig
Oct 18
Murray had a little Lamb
Historical Crossroads
Tamworth has stood at a crossroads throughout the centuries. Romans settled there, as did the Angles, morphing into Mercia's capital where Offa was the main man.
The Peninsula Heathen Army Sets Off
The latest version of the Great Heathen Army (well, a full bus) assembled at Ramsden Square in the hurricane that passes for 'a bit blowy' on our glorious peninsula. Middle-aged men who were resplendent in shorts at Roots Hall a fortnight ago shivered, bobble
Oct 10
Barrow Overcome Wealdstone at a Radiant Holker Street
To say we’ve turned a corner as of late would probably be something of an understatement. It’s more been a case of catapulting around a corner at high speed, and that’s just the playing style. The intense and physical vision of Murrayball is starting to become a reality just as autumn reluctantly tries to nudge its way in across the Furness Peninsula, and just as we finally start to recreate the sort of form that placed us in the upper echelons of League Two almost three year
Oct 4
Marching to the beat of our own drum
There are two big absences tonight: the Scunthorpe drum and me. Yes, I'm doing another report off the old Telebox. Many apologies. So forgive me a third absence, any type of reflection on the crowd, away support, or whatever else you might expect from the terraces. I can comment on the wind, however. From my vantage point above Big Sand on the north-west coast of Scotland, the Atlantic gusts are giving Holker Street a right good go for its money. I'm mid-tour of Alba in the B
Sep 30
Roots Maneouvres: Southend Done the Northern Way
I’m sat at my laptop on a rainy Sunday lunchtime still trying to distil yesterday into a cogent narrative. Every time I try to get some thoughts down, something else pops into my head. ADHD or BAFC? A bit of both, most likely.
Saturday started bright and early with a smooth run down to Euston on the rattler. When in the capital some went straight to the seaside, others to their post-England game digs and my eldest and I did our usual schlep around Oxford Street for some win
Sep 27
BARROW AFC'S BLUEY GOES BACK TO SCHOOL
A Different Kind of Training Day
Barrow AFC mascot Bluey joined local teachers and club staff in a training day with a difference as part of the Barrow 125 initiative.
Walking the Heritage Trail
The training, which aims to provide educational links to Barrow AFC and Barrow itself in the classroom for local children, began with a visit to where the Heritage Trail (the plaques for which are sponsored by the local Unite Union branch) is planned.
Sep 26
A shot in the Arm
Barrow win the toss and elect to play into the wind in the first half, opting for the dubious advantage of attacking the Holker St End in the second. Isaac Marriott is deservedly handed the captain's armband, in lieu of the aforementioned MJ, at a time when the gaffer has said we need voices on the pitch and leaders in the dressing room. A truism for any club, but after the last year, one that's worth emphasising.
Sep 20
Damson in distress
A jaunt out to Worthing via the capital on Saturday greeted me with a difficult decision. Am I to venture into the Midlands, following our Jekyll and Hyde display at the weekend?
Well aye, hence why you're reading this. With all other Beans operatives occupied, the bottom of the barrel has been scraped as you're greeted with my good self at the helm. I can assure you there'll be no poetry or novels here, but a man who's covered over 1,000 miles in the last few days watching
Sep 16
Way Out Worthing
The story this ballad will tell
Began quite remarkably well
Though a gruelling away
Was a pretty good day
With a sudden descent into hell.
It began in the deep of the night,
From DAZN's stupid scheduling shite,
Climbed on in Ramsden Square,
Half the bus seats to spare,
But all positive up for the fight
Sep 12
Sutton Shellacked by Buoyant Barra
Paul Hornby has been feeling something building. No, we haven't been serving Ryvita and Krisprolls baguettes in the hospitality — I've been feeling it too. We've had five games of footballing lethologica, searching for the word win — was today it? If it is, it won't be easy.
Before we dissect the dictionary definition of a game of non-league football, some sad news. Bluey has been kicked to death in a Hindpool back alley. He has been replaced by his more fragrant and better-l
Sep 6
Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards
The journey itself, however, was pleasant enough. A stupidly cheap first-class upgrade later, I arrived in the eternal confusional vortex of Birmingham New Street, then onward.
Kiddy. A very similar size of town, carpets rather than the nation’s nuclear deterrent providing the bedrock. Perennial non-leaguers, but with a foray into the Football League. Very, very odd and unintelligible accent.
Still, we weren’t short of inexplicably odd behaviour, especially when one of our nu
Aug 31
Glovers and Groundhogs
Thanks to holidays and a personal boycott of the evil empire that is Harrogate Town, the home fixture against Yeovil was my first chance to cast an eye over Murray’s revamped Bluebirds in competitive action. I’d been to the Blackpool pre-season game and got suitably carried away with the win before the resumption of league action knockBased on the above, to say I was looking forward to the trip would be a stretch of the truth. It is not notoriously a happy hunting ground, and
Aug 29
A Love Letter to Sam Foley
Friend of the fanzine, Seb White pens a love letter to Sam Foley, midfield maestro, cult hero, and a player who always gives it everything.
The WhatsApp notification pings and my good mate Jonny says, “Just planning the next Give ‘Em Beans…how about a love letter to Sam Foley?”
13 years ago, a 27-year-old Sam was an integral part of the Yeovil Town team that incredibly got to the League One Play-Off Final. As former editor of the club’s fanzine ‘On To Victory’ I’ll never e
Aug 25
Third Time's the C’H’arm: A Late Resurgence in Yorkshire
When most people think of Harrogate, they imagine a delightful spa town in the heart of Yorkshire, with charming tea rooms, independent boutiques, and cobbled streets. Sadly, this match reporter merely recalls Rhys Healey’s eight-minute cameo, Josh Falkingham’s pantomime villain antics, and Simon Weaver... well, just existing, really.
Based on the above, to say I was looking forward to the trip would be a stretch of the truth. It is not notoriously a happy hunting ground, and
Aug 23
Holker Street Urchins Leave Barrow Asking for More
The year 2026 and we've already hit more rock bottoms than a Flintstones sex tape, climaxing in losing our EFL status. A precious Fabergé egg that should have been bound in bubble wrap, put in a strong box and vaulted inside the DDH, instead we've chucked it over the garden fence like a careless postman. Let's not dwell. Summer gave us the opportunity to Ctrl Alt Delete the blue screen of death and reboot into National League OS 2.0 with renewed optimism. My own coping method
Aug 16
The Tale of Innes Cameron and the Stabilo Boss XI
If you were unfortunate enough to suffer a medical episode that meant you were in a coma for the past twelve months, you would be forgiven for thinking that nothing has changed. Barrow playing away from home for the first game of the season in a lesser-spotted third shirt, with Big Innes Cameron leading the line in the glorious sunshine. Rekeem Harper was also there, as was Scott Smith; you would be forgiven for thinking nothing has changed, albeit everything has changed and
Aug 9
THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MURRAY
Hope, football, and ‘Meet the Board’ nights spring eternal. As the faithful, sceptical, and hopeful gathered, we wondered how this one would come across. That’s not to imply any lack of sincerity, just that there’s only a certain number of ways this could be presented—and unless the three amigos were about to deliver their thoughts in the medium of French mime, or perhaps a Sanskrit mantra, we’d likely seen similar before.
Aug 1
Peak Practice
“Practice means to perform, over and over again in the face of all obstacles, some act of vision, of faith, of desire. Practice is a means of inviting the perfection desired.”
Radcliffe away pre-season. Third game in and first out of Barrow. Stupidly delighted to be ‘going away’ again, I waited impatiently for transport to arrive. I guess we need to practise too. Acts of faith take work, though optimism has peeked through this summer’s gloom.
Jul 22
PODCAST SPeCiAL: JOhn DUffin
It's preseason, the football's on pause (well the proper stuff we mean), but there's never a shortage of things worth talking about at Beans!.
Jun 18
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