Housham hails ruthless Blues as they beat Barrow

Gainsborough Trinity manager Steve Housham hailed his side’s ruthlessness after their convincing 6-0 thrashing of Barrow in Skrill North action on Saturday.
Gainsborough Trinity v Barrow AFC, FA Trophy Fourth Round.  Pictured is Simon Russell.Gainsborough Trinity v Barrow AFC, FA Trophy Fourth Round.  Pictured is Simon Russell.
Gainsborough Trinity v Barrow AFC, FA Trophy Fourth Round. Pictured is Simon Russell.

A Lewis McMahon hat-trick, two goals from Brad Barraclough and a Simon Russell penalty had the statisticians thumbing the record books as the Blues recorded their biggest ever away win

“It could have been an easy team talk at 3-0 up,” said Housham.

“But you need to go on in these games and win by five or six as we did.”

“We carried on doing the basics well – I didn’t want us flicking it about, I wanted us to continue doing what we did well in the first half.”

After withstanding an early spell of pressure from the home side, Housham made adjustments to the formation by playing McMahon in a more advanced role, a change that paid off in triplicate.

“We kept it simple,” said the manager.

“We probably could have scored in the first few minutes but we then had to weather the storm again like we did against Colwyn Bay.”

“We had to change a couple of things tactically and their heads dropped a bit after we scored.”

“The penalty killed the game off at 4-0, and we’re all delighted for Lewis getting his hat-trick.”

Although possession was dominated by the home side in the early stages, their lack of confidence in the final third was indicative of a team without a win in seven games,.

Trinity stopper Phil Barnes’ low save from Gareth Arnison after three minutes was the closest Barrow came to opening the scoring.

After the tactical switch, the Blues grew into the game, and it wasn’t long before they took the lead.

A less than supreme touch from Robbie Williams allowed Barraclough to take possession, and the striker was able to play McMahon in to loft the ball over Tony McMillan in the Barrow goal for the opener.

Barraclough was on the scoresheet himself three minutes later.

As Trinity piled on the pressure, he dived to head past McMillan from close range off the back of Simon Russell’s cross.

Barrow continued to implode under the sustained pressure from Trinity’s front line, with Barraclough and Jamie Wootton consistently hassling the Bluebirds’ shaky looking backline.

The killer third goal came just before the break.

McMahon drifted away from Danny O’Donnell’s marking to glance his header into the bottom corner to double his tally and end the game as a contest before half time.

With the home side keen to strike early in the second half to save some face, Trinity displayed their ruthless streak to make it 4-0 five minutes after the restart.

McMahon slid the ball through to Barraclough, who broke clear of the defence before being felled by McMillan, leaving Mr Miller no option but to point to the spot and hand the Blues a penalty..

Russell hammered the resulting spot kick to the goalkeeper’s left for a deserved goal.

At this point, everything Russell touched was turning to gold, and it was fitting that it was his cross for the fifth goal.

The former Lincoln City midfielder broke away down the right, putting in a sharp low cross for that man Barraclough to slide in and flick past the goalkeeper.

McMahon’s hat-trick was completed with eight minutes to go, stabbing home from close range after right back Dominic Roma dragged his cross to the loan star following some silky footwork to beat his markers.

Trinity: Barnes, Roma, Wilde, McMahon, Howe, Young, Russell, Toner (Williams 63) Wootton (Batty 76), Barraclough, Clayton (Davis 68).

Subs not used: Stamp, Lacey

Barrow: McMillan, Burns, Edwards, Sheridan, O’Donnell, Williams (Radcliffe 35), Lacey, Harvey, Arnison, Rushton (Parkinson, 80), Meechan (Thompson 68).

Goals: McMahon (23, 43, 82), Barraclough (26, 61), Russell (50 PEN).

Referee: Mr A Miller.

Attendance: 529.

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