MJ Williams has waited a long time for that feeling.
Almost two years without a goal, a summer of upheaval, the sting of relegation still fresh – and then, at last, release. The Barrow captain strode into the box against Sutton United last Saturday and delivered the opener in a 3-0 win that felt bigger than three points. It was a marker. For him, for his manager, for a club trying to drag itself out of a dark spell.
The strike set Adam Murray on his way to a first victory since taking over in the summer and finally gave Barrow’s season a pulse at the sixth attempt. For a side still carrying the scars of dropping out of League Two, the result mattered as much emotionally as it did in the table.
For Williams, 30, the goal was both a shock and a promise.
“It was a bit of a shock really but I think I’ve been due one,” he told BBC Radio Cumbria, speaking with the blunt honesty of a player who knows his own game. He has never been a headline forward, never the one whose name dominates the scoresheet, but he has been wrestling with that.
“It is something I have always wanted to do is add goals but sometimes I don’t find myself in the right positions,” he admitted.
That is changing. Under Murray, Barrow have drilled their set-pieces relentlessly, and the captain is starting to profit.
“We work a lot on set-pieces, so I am finding myself in better positions now. It is a massive part of our game and I want to add more goals to my game and hopefully I can this season.”
The goal itself was only half the story. The real weight of the afternoon came after the final whistle.
Last season was bruising. Relegation, long winless runs, a fanbase worn down by disappointment. Williams has felt that strain as sharply as anyone inside the dressing room.
“It has been tough for the fans, I’ve never wanted it to be like that, obviously going on from last season,” he said. “They have been through some tough times, as the club has, and to have that moment with them at the end of the game was massive.”
The images at full-time told their own tale: players and supporters together, noise instead of muttering, applause instead of anger. That connection has been a clear priority for Murray since he walked through the door.
“Since the gaffer has come in, he has spoken about wanting to be all together and have that connection with the fans, and I think in some of our performances we have deserved more from games,” Williams said. The 3-0 scoreline against Sutton finally reflected the work that had gone unrewarded. “To get that 3-0 win and have the scenes at the end was brilliant for all of us.”
The challenge now is obvious. One result does not rewrite a season, and Barrow know it.
Next comes the long journey to Worthing and a test at Woodside Road that Williams is treating as nothing less than pivotal.
“We all know it is a long journey but it is a massive game for us,” he said. No excuses, no caveats. “It will be a big week for us, we need to go there and put on a good performance. There are no excuses in this game, we will get down there, prepare right and go there with confidence after that first win we have had.”
That confidence has been in short supply over the past year. The mood, though, has shifted in the space of a single weekend.
“The feeling around the team has been brilliant this week,” Williams said. “When you are not winning it is tough but to wake up on a Sunday knowing you have won on a Saturday is a bit of a relief.”
It is a line that cuts to the heart of the modern footballer’s reality. The game consumes the week. Defeats linger in the dressing room, in the car home, in the quiet moments. Barrow barely tasted that Sunday relief last season.
“Last season we didn’t have many of those feelings and it is not nice in football to be coming in when you are not winning,” he reflected.
Now, at last, they have a platform. A captain who has rediscovered the net, a manager with his first win, a fanbase reminded what it feels like to celebrate with their team rather than simply endure them.
“This week has been brilliant for all of us,” Williams said, before quickly snapping back to the task ahead, “but it is important now that we get back on it on Saturday and get a massive three points.”
One goal has broken a long personal drought. One win has eased the weight of relegation. The real measure of this Barrow side comes next: can they turn that single, cathartic afternoon into the start of something far bigger?
