Three Pigeons, Three Goals, Three Points
Halifax (A) - National League - 27th October 2026
Wow! Barra Soccer, eh... Bloody hell!
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 you a better match report from the telly. I don’t know what it is, but when I’m at a game I get so absorbed in the atmosphere and the surroundings that I can’t focus on the details. Even on a night like this, when I was sober as a judge.
Case in point: it was about 15 minutes in before I properly worked out the starting line-up. That was roughly the point where I started thinking it didn’t feel right. There was talk before the game that Allen and Walker had been started on the wings to exploit injuries or suspensions Halifax had at full-back. Was that true? No idea. But if it was, it wasn’t really working. Bar the odd explosive burst of pace from Allen, it didn’t trouble Halifax much, especially with Reid offering little up front and every cross floated straight into the path of a keeper who picked up everything.
Still, it felt like a decent enough start from us. Lots of huff, if not much puff. But the longer the game went on, the more the defence started to look like an issue. The high line was being exploited, and it got me thinking. The great thing about this team lately is its depth. Take the Wealdstone game (if I recall correctly), when Marriott was suspended, Edwards stepped in and did a sterling job. That seems to be the case all over the pitch: the depth helps us ride out injuries and suspensions. There is, though, one exception, it seems, and that’s Paul Kalambayi. He looks absolutely essential to leading and commanding the back line, and without him it got pulled all over the place as the game went on.
That, plus the difficulty of dealing with ex-Shrimp Ben Tollitt (who had an excellent game), saw us 2-0 down on 61 minutes. Before that, and for a while after, it felt like Halifax were beating us at our own game. They absorbed everything we threw at them, they pushed us about, and they found the channels to create chances. It looked very much like a write-off. Vibe kill! (I’ll come to the vibes in part two.)
But this is Adam Murray’s Barra Soccer. I’ll say that again: this is Adam Murray’s Barra Soccer! That’s the important thing to remember as the crowd slips into that very English coping mechanism of “ah well, you can’t win ’em all, it’s been a nice night out regardless.” This team, with this approach, with this desire and ability on the pitch, doesn’t write off a game that looks like certain defeat.
Seb Thompson (who I hope, as we speak, someone is drawing up a contract extension for, to replace his current short-term deal) picks up the ball and, out of nowhere, finds the back of the net, and it certainly doesn’t feel like a consolation goal. It feels like a kick square in Halifax Town’s balls. Because then comes the onslaught! I won’t describe it all in detail: you were there, or you watched it, or you’ve seen the highlights and the countless reshares on Twitter. It was an exceptional display of effort and desire from a group of players who really believe in themselves, backed by a support that really believes in them, against a side and a support that now feared what was in store for them.
Incredible stuff, and let me explain why in my second theme.
Side note: Halifax clearly weren’t expecting numbers like that in the travelling support. A single turnstile accepting cash only, and a single food and drinks trailer for the lot of us, made getting in and getting a drink a shambles.
The Vibes!
I managed to convince my nine-year-old son, who’s off for half-term, to come along. Halifax isn’t a long journey from north Manchester, and the offer of as many J2Os as he could drink, plus a generous sweets and chocolate tab in the ground to keep him busy chomping E-numbers, was enough to tempt him past the nightmare of Fleetwood away. That was the last game I took him to, the day I resigned myself to us being relegated. On the way back in the pissing rain I said to him: “You don’t have to worry about getting into this or feeling the pain, son. You’re a Manchester kid, born and bred. This is your dad’s penance. I was born into it and I have to live with it.” That was 21st February 2026, and it got worse and worse from there.
Think about that for a second, then fast-forward to where we are now. Think about how bad and toxic the relationship with the players got. Think about being devoid of all hope and asking yourself why you even bother. Then think of the moment last night when Innes Cameron grabbed his brace. The players among the supporters at the end. The incredible levels of noise and the euphoric atmosphere from the 365 travelling Barrow fans.
The asterisk at the end of every sentence about how well we’re doing at the moment seems to be “well, they haven’t achieved anything yet.” Well, I’d argue Adam Murray and this group of players absolutely have achieved something. They took a club that had lost all connection with its players, that had lost all hope, to six league wins on the bounce, to moments like last night, to a connection between supporters and players we simply haven’t felt in so long, to singing “INNES CAMERON, BALLON D’OR”, to Rakeem Harper orchestrating the crowd as he comes over to take a corner, to a load of new players kids now want on the back of their shirts, to pissing off what seems like every fanbase in the National League (big shout-out to Adam Johnson). To being BARRA SOCCER again! and to my son turning to me at the end of the night and going, “That was so good, Dad. When can we go again?”
From where we were to where we are on 28th October 2026, I’d argue that’s some achievement for Adam Murray and this group so far, and it’s what lets us begin to hope again. Hope that by the end of all this there’ll be a play-off spot, and that this manager, this team and this fanbase, feeding off the good vibes they’ve brought back to this club, can do something special.
Who knows? Football’s a funny old game. But let’s give Murray and this squad their praise now for what they’ve certainly achieved, and hope long may it continue.
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