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Graham Barrow

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Graham Barrow
Personal information
Full name Graham Barrow[1]
Date of birth (1954-06-13) 13 June 1954 (age 70)[1]
Place of birth Chorley,[1] England
Height 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)[2]
Position(s) Midfielder
Team information
Current team
 Wigan Athletic (Assistant Manager)
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
Chorley
1978–1979 Southport 44 (5)
1979–1981 Altrincham 62 (11)
1981–1986 Wigan Athletic 179 (35)
1986–1994 Chester City 248 (17)
Total 533 (68)
Managerial career
1992–1994 Chester City
1994–1995 Wigan Athletic
1996–1999 Rochdale
2000–2001 Chester City
2003–2005 Bury
2013 Wigan Athletic (Caretaker Manager)
2016 Wigan Athletic (Caretaker Manager)
2017 Wigan Athletic (Caretaker Manager)
2018 Wrexham (Assistant Manager)
2018–2019 Wrexham (Interim Manager)
2023–Present Wigan Athletic (Assistant Manager)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Graham Barrow (born 13 June 1954) is an English former footballer who has since become a professional manager in the English game. He is currently working for Wigan Athletic as an assistant manager to Shaun Maloney.[3]

Playing career

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Having previously played for Chorley and Southport,[4] Barrow first entered the Football League at the relatively late age of 27 in August 1981 when he signed for Wigan Athletic from Altrincham for £10,000. He became a vital part of manager Larry Lloyd's promotion winning side, playing as a hard man in midfield, and further endeared himself to Wigan fans by putting in a hard working performance in the Associate Members' Cup final at Wembley Stadium in 1985 despite playing in the unfamiliar position of forward. He left the club for Chester City in 1986 for £6,000,[5] after 212 appearances in all competitions for the Latics (179 games, 36 goals in the League).

Barrow had a difficult start at Chester, suffering five bookings in his first seven games,[5] and in November 1986 he considered a move to Blackpool.[5] But he opted to stay with the Blues and went on to make 298 first team appearances over the next eight years, mainly as captain. He combined his playing role with an assistant manager position to Harry McNally from 1988–89 onwards.[6] On the final day of the 1991–92 season, Barrow scored a late winner in Chester's final home game at Moss Rose against Leyton Orient to seal Division Three survival for the club.[7]

Management & coaching

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Chester, Wigan and Rochdale

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Barrow began his managerial career with Chester City in 1992 (as player–manager), after collecting seven points from four games in caretaker charge.[8] Although the team was relegated to the Football League Third Division in 1993, Barrow inspired the Blues to bounce back the next season and gain promotion, but he resigned in the summer of 1994 amid frustration at key players leaving and a lack of financial backing from the board.[9] He retired from playing following his departure, with his final appearance being in Chester's win 3–2 win over Preston North End on 2 April 1994, just two months before his 40th birthday.[9]

He returned to Wigan as manager early in 1994–95 and rescued the Latics from relegation to the Football Conference. He was in charge of Rochdale from 1996 to 1999, although the club failed to gain any success and he left after a third successive bottom-half placing. A spell as assistant–manager at Notts County followed before returning to Chester as manager on 31 May 2000, shortly after their relegation to the Conference.[10] Although Chester finished well out of the promotion race in eighth position, Barrow managed to guide the club to an FA Cup third round tie with Blackburn Rovers after eliminating Football League sides Plymouth Argyle and Oxford United. He also led them to the FA Trophy semi–finals and victory in the final of the Nationwide Variety Club Trophy, with the players saying he had "single-handedly put Chester back on the football map".[11] Despite his cup successes, Barrow was sacked in June 2001, a move largely unpopular with supporters.[12]

Bury

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He was manager of Bury, from January 2004 after a spell as assistant-manager to Andy Preece. However the club did not progress satisfactorily and as a result Barrow was dismissed in September 2005.[13] He returned to Chester at the end of the season, becoming assistant to manager Mark Wright. They were sacked together on 29 April 2007.[14] He returned to working in football the following January, when he continued his trend of going back to former clubs in north-west England by becoming assistant–manager to Graham Heathcote at Altrincham.[15]

Return to Wigan

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In July 2009, Barrow returned to Wigan as first–team coach under new manager Roberto Martínez.[16]

Due to Owen Coyle's sacking on 2 December 2013, Barrow took charge of the team for their game against Leeds United two days later, which they lost 2–0.[17] On 7 December, Uwe Rösler was named full-time manager.[18]

Following the sacking of Gary Caldwell in October 2016 Barrow again took charge on a caretaker basis, overseeing a 1–0 victory over Cardiff City on 29 October.[19] In March 2017, Wigan appointed Barrow as caretaker manager for the remainder of the 2016–17 season after the sacking of Warren Joyce but he was unable to prevent relegation to League One.[20]

Wrexham

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On 3 July 2018, Barrow was appointed as assistant manager to new Wrexham manager Sam Ricketts in the National League.[21] Amidst speculation that Ricketts was about to take the job at Shrewsbury Town, Barrow took caretaker charge alongside goalkeeper coach Jussi Jääskeläinen and coach Carl Darlington for Wrexham's FA Cup second round match with Newport County on 1 December 2018, which ended in a 0–0 draw.[22] When Ricketts' departure to Shrewsbury was confirmed two days later, Barrow was placed in interim charge.[23]

Shrewsbury Town

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In June 2019 he joined Shrewsbury Town as assistant manager to Sam Ricketts.[24]

Managerial statistics

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As of match played 26 January 2019[25]
Managerial record by team and tenure
Team From To Record
P W D L Win %
Chester City 20 October 1992 31 July 1994 84 30 16 38 035.7
Wigan Athletic 1 August 1994 9 October 1995 61 19 14 28 031.1
Rochdale 1 August 1996 2 May 1999 155 50 40 65 032.3
Chester City 1 June 2000 22 June 2001 64 26 22 16 040.6
Bury 16 December 2003 19 September 2005 84 22 28 34 026.2
Wigan Athletic (caretaker) 2 December 2013 7 December 2013 2 0 0 2 000.0
Wigan Athletic (caretaker) 25 October 2016 2 November 2016 1 1 0 0 100.0
Wigan Athletic (caretaker) 13 March 2017 29 May 2017 9 2 2 5 022.2
Wrexham 1 December 2018 2 February 2019 13 5 2 6 038.5
Total 473 155 124 194 032.8

Honours

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Player

Manager

Bibliography

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  • Sumner, Chas (1997). On the Borderline: The Official History of Chester City F.C. 1885–1997. Yore Publications. ISBN 1-874427-52-6.

References

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  1. ^ a b c "Graham Barrow". Barry Hugman's Footballers. Retrieved 1 April 2020.
  2. ^ Dunk, Peter, ed. (1987). Rothmans Football Yearbook 1987–88. London: Queen Anne Press. p. 126. ISBN 978-0-356-14354-5.
  3. ^ Kendrick, Paul (29 January 2023). "Why Graham Barrow had to be part of the Wigan Athletic rebuild". Wigan Today.
  4. ^ "Graham Barrow". SFC Fpa. Port Online. 9 November 2016. Retrieved 7 December 2018.
  5. ^ a b c Sumner (1997), p.103
  6. ^ Sumner (1997), p.105
  7. ^ Sumner (1997), p.111
  8. ^ Sumner (1997), p.115
  9. ^ a b Sumner (1997), p.118
  10. ^ "Barrow Returns". chester-city.co.uk (see 31 May). 31 May 2000. Retrieved 29 June 2008.
  11. ^ "Players Respond to Ban". chester-city.co.uk (see 26 April). 26 April 2001. Retrieved 29 June 2008.
  12. ^ "Graham Barrow sacked". chester-city.co.uk (see 20–21 June). 20 June 2001. Retrieved 10 January 2008.
  13. ^ "Barrow sacked". This is Lancashire. 22 September 2005. Retrieved 10 January 2008.[permanent dead link‍]
  14. ^ "Vaughan: Why duo had to go". Liverpool Echo. 4 May 2007. Retrieved 10 January 2008.
  15. ^ "Barrow is Altrincham number two". BBC Sport. 10 January 2008. Retrieved 10 January 2008.
  16. ^ "Barrow returns to Wigan as coach". BBC Sport. 8 July 2009. Retrieved 8 July 2009.
  17. ^ "Leeds United 2–0 Wigan Athletic". BBC Sport. 4 December 2013. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
  18. ^ "Sky Bet Championship: Wigan caretaker Graham Barrow happy with Uwe Rosler". Sky Sports. 7 December 2013. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
  19. ^ "Cardiff City 0-1 Wigan Athletic". BBC Sport. 29 October 2016. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
  20. ^ "Warren Joyce: Wigan Athletic part company after four months". BBC Sport. 13 March 2017. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
  21. ^ "Graham Barrow: Wrexham appoint experienced coach to assist Ricketts". BBC Sport. 3 July 2018. Retrieved 3 July 2018.
  22. ^ Williams, Richard (1 December 2018). "FA Cup second round: Wrexham AFC 0 Newport County 0". The Leader. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
  23. ^ "Sam Ricketts Departs Wrexham AFC". 3 December 2018. Archived from the original on 8 November 2020. Retrieved 3 December 2018.
  24. ^ "Graham Barrow: Shrewsbury appoint ex-Wigan, Rochdale and Bury manager as assistant". BBC Sport. 4 June 2019.
  25. ^ "Graham Barrow". Soccerbase. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
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