Barton Town Old Boys

Barton Town Old Boys FC are a non league club from Barton on Humber in North Lincolnshire. The club was formed after a merger between Barton Town and Barton Old Boys in 1995.Town began life in 1880, moving into Marsh Lane in 1927. They played local football before having spells in both the Midland and Yorkshire Leagues before returning to the Lincolnshire League in 1981. They won a league title before folding owing to lack of finances a decade later. Old Boys were formed in 1959 and played out their history in the Lincolnshire League.












In 1995 they won all four competitions in the Scunthorpe based league. After the merger, the new club remained in the Lincolnshire League before entering the Humber Premier League in 2000 and then the Central Midlands League a couple of years later to join the football pyramid. After huge ground improvements and a Supreme League title in the CML, the club were promoted to the Northern Counties East League.

Former Hull City defender Neil Buckley chartered much of the clubs success in his role as manager before leaving for pastures new at North Ferriby United. The team finished runners up to clinch promotion at the end of the 2010-11 season.














Barton Town Old Boys will be playing in the Northern Counties East League Premier Division for the 2012-13 season.

My visit

Barton Town Old Boys 1 Scarborough Athletic 5 (Saturday 10th July 2010) Pre Season Friendly (att: 150)





I had spent the day before the game visiting a few clubs around North Lincolnshire before watching the pre season friendly between Brigg Town and Grimsby Town and spending the night in Grimsby. I limbered up for the afternoon game with a train journey along the banks of the Humber to Barton, before getting a return on the bus to visit the home of Winterton Rangers.

I was early for kick off, so I wanted to retrace old footsteps in the town and call in at the Coach & Horses pub. Our mini bus had used it on many occasions when Boro were playing in that direction in the Football League. It was a two roomed boozer that served excellent Tetley's, filling cheap rolls, a large Tetley's mirror on the wall and generally had a great buzz about it.

I was hugely disappointed on my return. It was clean and modern, but soulless. There was no Tetleys and the mirror had been replaced by a plasma screen with food available from the usual sort of menu seen in hundreds of pubs everywhere.

I got my Tetley fix in the Queen's on the way to the Euronics Ground on Marsh Lane. It was still only around 2.15 and there weren't too many there. The old boys on the gate gave me a warm welcome as we chatted about football issues in general. Obviously it afected their concentration as they tried to give me my money back! They charged a very fair £3 admission and just 10p for a far superior teamsheet compared to the £1 I'd paid at Brigg the previous evening.The ground was of great pride to them, and I wasn't surprised. It was extremely neat and tidy. The near side was open flat standing with the clubhouse and changing rooms behind. The rest of the ground had a mixture of flat concrete and grass. Two little covered stands with a few steps were behind the far goal. A seated stand was on the far touchline.

It was nice to catch up with old friends at my first Boro game of the season. The new shirts were on display, which received great praise. There was a general upbeat feel about the club, not least because of a very positive fans forum at which local SBC representatives had given a talk about the new Sports Village earlier that week.

 Barton started well and went ahead. It didn't take Boro long to get into gear in reply and they went in 3-1 ahead at half time with goals from Rob Northen, Graham Botham and Bill Law. The talk over the half time beers to keep us cool on a glorious day, was whether any further new signings would be joining the club, including former Scarborough FC skipper, Denny Ingram, who had played in the first friendly against Estfield St James the previous week.

 










The second half saw Boro in control, with former Seadogs keeper Dave Bramley showing some great shot stopping skills in the home goal. Further goals were added by Northen and Ryan Blott.

The highlight, if it could be called that, was some extremely pedantic refereeing. Barton had used all their substitutes, when one of their players was injured. They asked if they could bring on one of the previously used players to replace him. The Boro bench were fine about it, but the referee refused, which led to some interesting feedback from the Barton bench. The referee took the major offender away for a lecture, before Rob Northen voluntarily walked off to even up the sides. This was a great sporting gesture, which sadly wasn't recipricated by the home side when a Boro player left the pitch for lengthy treatment.













It had been a good workout for the Seadogs, in which French trialist Jacques Joblon impressed. It was also good to see former full back revelation Rob Hoyle there supporting his old mates, while across from college in the USA.

I returned to Scarborough with Jamie and young Marcus for a few days relaxation by the seaside with family and friends.

Barton Town Old Boys 1 Scarborough Athletic 1 (Wednesday 10th October 2012) NCEL Premier Division (att: 210)

I was off for two days after completing my night shifts at work, so I combined a visit to this important league clash with a visit to Doncaster Rovers the evening before as well as plenty of localised groundhopping.

I finished my wandering and took the train to Hessle, where my good mate and fellow Boro supporter Fred Firman collected me. We stopped off on the way to his house to buy some amazing fish and chips in Anlaby, which we consumed while watching the majority of Yorkshire's vital Champions League decider against Trinidad & Tobago.

We headed south of the Humber via the bridge chewing the fat about the Boro, with us both saying we'd be happy to collect a point at a very tricky venue. The car park was very busy on arrival with the Seadogs estimated following at around 150. Admission cost £5, with a further quid for a decent enough programme.

After an ordinary pint and a chat we went outside into the chill air to cheer on our lads. After eight minutes we were stunned by an awful refereeing decision which saw ex Boro keeper Dave Bramley being shown only a yellow card when he brought down Ryan Blott who was clean through on goal and virtually round the custodian.

The match was very tight. Barton played predominently on the break and gave us plenty of scares, while Boro created a few half chances of their own. Although the ref had made a shocking decision earlier, I enjoyed the way he allowed the players to tackle. The teams went in scoreless for the break.

After the interval, Barton were awarded a penalty as the game to and froed, with another former Boro player Rich Medcalf blasting the spot kick well wide. This seem to urge the Seadogs on even more as they began to take control. Bramley was making the most of his reprieve by pulling off some excellent saves, although some of the Boro finishing left a little to be desired.

Unbelievably to us Barton went one up with just eight minutes remaining through Josh Schofield, as they celebrated as though they had lifted the Champions League. Undeterred, Boro continued to push forward and were rewarded when Blott equalised in stoppage time when he fired in off the underside of the bar to spark off joyous celebrations. They nearly grabbed a winner before the end as a deflected shot sneaked agonisingly wide.

A draw was perhaps fair enough, although we felt a little disappointed. Who knows which way the game would have gone if the ref had made the correct decision early on?

We returned to Fred's to watch Yorkshire polish off the required runs. I returned on the train the following morning after another couple of excellent days up north.