Bacup Borough progresed to the last eight of the Lancashire Cooperative Challenge Cup after beating Barrow 1-0 thanks to an Ian Barker strike on the stroke of half time.
Barrow came to West View with a strong squad, influential player Darren Sheriden was suspended and number one keeper Tim Deasey was on the substitutes bench, the sixteen on duty represented the majority of the Cumbrian sides first team squad, make no mistake this victory was fully deserved for a well organised Bacup Borough side.
Bacup were happy to sit and be patient not allowing Barrow from three leagues above the Vodkat North West Counties League side to pick them off and get in behind, Bacups organisation and patients almost paid off mid way through the half when some clever build up play by the home side through Shepherd, Chadwick and Stevens dropping in did find barker with a clever flick, the Cumbrian side were trying to play a high line but Barker got in behind beating the off side trap but with all the hard work done, agonisingly his shot was inches wide of the post.
The only real threat of the first half Barrow created was both from corners when first of all Chris Thompson was gifted a free header when defender Chris Cooper lost his footing but luckily the header was just wide of the upright, their second chance was also from a corner when the Barrow Captain Paul Jones left Barker to head just over the bar.
Right on the stroke of half time Bacup got the break through their patience deserved, this came when Craig Chadwick pressed the ball right the way to the edge of the Barrow penalty area, he then found Barker who left his marker before slipping the ball accross Archer in the Barrow goal which proved to be the winning goal.
The second half was a typical cup tie with the pitch cutting up with the rain coming down, Barrow desperate to get back into the game did put the home side under some pressure but with Cooper, Jopson, Anderson and skipper Matthew Cross who were all a tower of strength Barrow could not find away through, Paul Brown came the nearest with a superb shot which had the keeper beaten but luckily for the home side it struck the underside of the bar and bounced down to clear to safety.
Barrow tried everything, throwing three men upfront, that did not work for them, in the final seven minutes of the game their Captain had also joined their attack but every single Borough player dug deep, battled well and in the end got their just reward, a place in the quarter final of this prestiges trophy.
Manager Brent Peters Comments " From a Managers perspective every game we have a game plan to contain the opposition but equaly try to be effective going the other way, sometimes plans just dont come off but boy how pleasing it is when it does come off like it did in this game, I spent time with the lads at training, we went through it all again prior to the game, then we went out onto that pitch and each and every player led by the tremendoues leadership of my Coach / Captain Matthew Cross were absoulutely different class, our organisation, our work rate, our patients was top drawer, believe you me we had to work because the opposition had come to win the game and very much wanted to win the game, remember like us, they have not had that many wins, so they were after a win because that would have set them up nicely for their FA Cup encounter with Bournmouth, Sky AND ITV Cameras were present so obviously they wanted to impress, however there was only one team out there impressing any one, that was Bacup Borough, well done lads this performance must be the start of everything to come "
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