History 2 of 3

2. History 2


2009/2010
Last year saw the club's most successful season ever with Marcus attaining promotion to the Evo-stik League First Division South at his third attempt. The year started well with a 4-0 victory in the Joe McGorian Cup over previous League winners Market Drayton Town. The team broke all club records gaining 114 points and scoring 125 league goals whilst maintaining an undefeated League record. Barwell also reached the semi final of the FA Vase where they narrowly lost out to Whitley Bay after a nail-biting two legged encounter which saw a massive 1279 crowd at home and 2730 at Whitley. In addition, the Canaries reached the final of the Westerby Cup, narrowly losing out to Loughborough Dynamo 2-1 and beating Hinckley United 3-0 to win the Rolleston Charity Cup.

2010/2011 … again proved to be a very successful season. The season started where the last one had finished … on a winning streak. In September the Manager, Marcus Law, left with our best wishes for a full time post at Kettering Town. Assistant Manager Paul O’Brien took over with Jimmy Ginnelly taking the post of Assistant Manager. Unfortunately Paul had to step down due to work commitments and so he and Jimmy swapped places for our third change in two months. As always with a new manager there are comings and goings but Jimmy managed to retain most of the squad and won the League at the first attempt.
During the closed season, Barwell were put into the Evo-stik League Southern Premier Division and so for the first time will be competing at level 3.
Paul O’Brien left the club during the closed season to take up a coaching position with ex manager Marcus Law, now at Tamworth. Martin Hier stepped up to Assistant Manager and Craig Woodley joined the Club as coach. Rob Lawrance also came on board as goalkeeping coach.

Everyone is now looking forward to the new league, visiting new grounds, meeting new people and to what will hopefully be a good season.

2011/2012 … was Barwell FC’s first ever season at Step 3 or equivalent in the club’s history. Jimmy Ginnelly brought in a number of players to consolidate the team’s position and others inevitably moved on to other clubs.
Matches were increasingly challenging but Barwell took some notable scalps with wins over the top teams in the division. Rising to sixth place in the table at one point, the Canaries ended the season in a very creditable ninth place.
Craig Woodley left the club after one season as a coach to take up a similar position in the USA.

The Reserves saw a significant change with Steve Greenhill stepping down to leave Andy Gray in sole charge. Results did not go their way for much of the season and they finished tenth out of twelve teams in the Midland Combination Reserve Division One. However, they reached the semi final of the Midland Combination Challenge Trophy where they narrowly lost out to Chasetown after two keenly fought matches.