Barrow
The club
Barrow Association Football Club (Barrow AFC) are a club from Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England, nicknamed the Bluebirds. The club is not Barrow Raiders, the town's rugby league club, and is not Barrow Town or any other Barrow side. Wikipedia says Barrow were founded on 16 July 1901 at the old Drill Hall on the Strand and joined the Football League in 1921. They have played at Holker Street since 1909, capacity 6,306 (2,249 seated); the ground reverted to the name Furness Building Society Stadium in summer 2026, with a new two-year naming deal agreed in September 2026. The page gives the record attendance as 16,874 in places and 16,784 in another, against Swansea Town in the 1953-54 FA Cup. Colours are traditionally blue and white; the 2026 home kit returned to black-and-white stripes for the 125th anniversary and the away kit is royal blue.
Adam Murray was appointed manager on 12 May 2026 on a contract to summer 2028, with Andy Taylor as assistant.
Recent seasons
Barrow were 20th in the National League in 2017-18 and 10th in 2018-19, and won the National League in 2019-20 on points per game after Covid-19 disruption, returning to the Football League in 2020-21. They finished 22nd in League Two in 2021-22, 9th in 2022-23, 8th in 2023-24 (one point outside the play-offs) and 16th in 2024-25. In 2025-26 they finished 24th of 24 and were relegated from League Two on 2 May 2026.
Honours and landmarks
FA Trophy winners 1990 and 2010 (the only club to win it at both the old and new Wembley); National League champions 2019-20; Conference North champions 2014-15; Lancashire Combination 1920-21; Lancashire FA Challenge Trophy 1981; Football League Fourth Division promotion 1966-67. The honours list in the source was cut off and may be incomplete. Highest league finish: 8th in the Third Division, 1967-68. Colin Cowperthwaite holds both appearance and goal records (704 and 282).
Notable scorelines
In 1958-59 they lost 4-2 to Wolverhampton Wanderers at Holker Street in the third round. In 2008-09 they beat Brentford 2-1 in round two and lost 2-1 at Middlesbrough; in 2009-10 they beat Eastleigh 2-1 in the first round and lost 3-0 at Sunderland in round three. In 2021-22 they lost 5-4 after extra time to Barnsley in round three. In the 2024-25 EFL Cup they beat Derby County 3-2 on penalties and lost 5-0 at Chelsea.
European record
None. The sources read here mention no European competition.
Quotes
No directly quoted material was confirmed from the sources read here.
Right now (2026-27 season)
Barrow play in the National League, the fifth tier, following relegation. Murray's first win was 3-0 against Sutton United at Holker Street on 5 September 2026; they lost to Solihull Moors on 15 September, then won five straight league matches to 10 October, the last 2-1 at Tamworth. Alex Reid, from Hartlepool United, was Murray's first signing. League position was not established from the sources read here. In the FA Cup first round proper they are drawn away at Gillingham, a League Two side, on Saturday 7 November 2026, at Priestfield Stadium per Wikipedia's 2026-27 FA Cup page, with kick-off not confirmed on a fan-site draw list.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrow_A.F.C. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_FA_Cup https://fanbanter.co.uk/fa-cup-first-round-proper-fixtures-full-draw-and-verified-round-information/
Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.