NL board to decide early next week

[Mapperleypie]

If we were in Barrow's position most on here would be crying out for us to be promoted.

If there is only one team to be promoted, then it should be Barrow.

This.

I can't imagine the FL are going to complete league two (Colchester have basically released a load of first-team players and would play the reminder of any season with largely academy players) as such there is likely to be only one place available when any new season starts. I fear even playing the NL play-offs behind closed doors would be a pointless risk at spreading COVID-19 to players and staff of the clubs involved.

It's a crappy state of affairs given how we were playing before this happened but there are bigger fish to fry than potentially playing a series of matches in the current environment that are eventually rendered null and void.

[jackal2]

Whatever scenario is adopted the lawyers will be rubbing their hands!

I suspect that the decisions imposed on the lower leagues will reflect the fact that clubs at these levels have far fewer resources to challenge the authorities legally. If the Premier League expunged their season or summarily relegated the current bottom three, they would be dragged through every court in the land by Liverpool and the other comparatively rich clubs involved. And rightly so!

[ArabianNotts]

I suppose in some way it would be righting a 50 year old wrong for Barrow.

[Oldstripy]

A fantasy solution:-

This last season is voided and all teams revert to the positions the had at the end of the 18/19 season, we finished 23rd so with Bury out of the league we would stay up, Yeovil relegated and the top team in NL promoted.

[Chinawhite1000]

They get tiny gates, the ground is a tip and it would be a risk for the FL taking them in. They haven't exactly been knocking on the door of the FL over the last 30+ years, they've had a decent few months run this season and were about to bottle it. They don't deserve to be handed it on a plate when they were only 4 points ahead with Harrogate and Notts catching up.

There would be no risk for the EFL - Barrow were in the league for 51 years remember.
Form over the last 30+ seasons is irrelevant.
Barrow have been top for 5 months (since winning 3-0 at Notts County). Barrow were 5 points clear on 1st January and are 4 points clear now - so not exactly bottling it. Notts whilst obviously improving (mainly due to Callum Roberts) were still 7 points behind and had played a game more. Harrogate did have Barrow to play at home and yes they could have won the game - BUT they still had to play Notts 3 times including the Trophy in the space of 10 days.

[upthemaggies]

I suppose in some way it would be righting a 50 year old wrong for Barrow.

They finished rock bottom (92nd) a year before being kicked out and were a massive 21 points adrift from avoiding re-election, this was in the 2 pts per win days as well, a huge gap.

[upthemaggies]

Rochdale would have had a much stronger case if this had happened ten years ago with one team going up from L2, look where they ended up, they didn't even finish as runners-up.

[upthemaggies]

Barrow were 5 points clear on 1st January and are 4 points clear now - so not exactly bottling it.

Why pluck out their position on 1st January? They were 8 points clear at the end of February, their lead had been cut in half before the season was suspended.

[Elite_Pie]

Notts whilst obviously improving (mainly due to Callum Roberts).

Pretty impressive that a Barrow fan knows the main reason for our improvement.

Out of interest, how many games have you seen Callum Roberts play in a Notts County shirt? Just the one or more?

[upthemaggies]

just had a look at where Rochdale were after 37 games in 2010 (same amount as Barrow have played before lockdown).

Rochdale had 78 points and were 10 points clear at the top having won 6 and drawn 1 of their last 7 league games.
They finished 3rd.

Barrow have 70 points from 37 having won 2 drawn 1 and lost 2 of their last 5, they haven't won a game by more than one goal since 18th Jan and they'd just lost at home to a team looking to displace them.