MJ Williams Ends Drought and Aims for More Goals as Barrow Ignite
MJ Williams had almost forgotten the feeling. A goal, his goal, and a roar that sounded less like celebration and more like collective release.
Nearly two years since he last found the net, the Barrow captain stepped up on Saturday and cracked open a game – and perhaps a season – with the opener in a 3-0 win over Sutton United. It was the Bluebirds’ first victory of the campaign, at the sixth attempt, and the first under new boss Adam Murray.
For a side still carrying the scars of relegation from League Two, it felt like more than three points.
“It was a bit of a shock really but I think I’ve been due one,” Williams told BBC Radio Cumbria afterwards, still half-amused, half-relieved by the moment. He has never been the headline act in front of goal, more the organiser, the anchor. But that is changing.
He knows it has to.
Williams has been working on it. Not in vague terms, but in the detail that decides games at this level: set-pieces, timing, starting positions, second balls. Barrow have put hours into dead-ball routines on the training ground, and the captain is now arriving in areas where chances fall, not just patrolling behind the play.
“We work a lot on set-pieces, so I am finding myself in better positions now,” he said. “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 against Sutton was the product of that graft and a symbol of something deeper. Barrow needed a moment to reset the mood. So did their supporters.
A bond rebuilt, briefly, in one afternoon
The final whistle brought more than applause. Players and fans stayed behind, shared the noise, the relief, the sense that the club had finally taken a step away from last season’s gloom.
“It has been tough for the fans, I’ve never wanted it to be like that, obviously going on from last season,” Williams admitted. “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.”
That connection has been a clear theme of Murray’s early weeks in charge. Results have not always matched performances, but the manager has pushed hard for unity, for a side that reflects the people in the stands as much as the tactics on the whiteboard.
“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. “To get that 3-0 win and have the scenes at the end was brilliant for all of us.”
The captain’s words carry weight because he has lived both sides of it: the walk back to the dressing room after another defeat, and the rare Sunday that starts with a smile.
“When you are not winning it is tough,” he said. “To wake up on a Sunday knowing you have won on a Saturday is a bit of a relief. 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.”
That honesty tells its own story. So does his insistence that one result changes nothing unless Barrow turn it into a habit.
Long road to Worthing, no room for excuses
The next test is a long one – literally. Barrow head to Worthing this weekend, a demanding trip to Woodside Road that will examine not just their legs but their new-found confidence.
“We all know it is a long journey but it is a massive game for us,” Williams said. He did not dress it up or look for sympathy. “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.”
The mood around the squad has lifted. Training feels lighter, sharper, because victories do that. Players want the ball more. Voices are louder. Sessions crackle instead of dragging.
“The feeling around the team has been brilliant this week,” the captain said. “This week has been brilliant for all of us but it is important now that we get back on it on Saturday and get a massive three points.”
Williams has his own targets. More goals. More big moments in both boxes. More afternoons like Sutton, when the work on the training ground meets the noise from the terraces and Barrow look like a club moving in the right direction again.
The drought is over. Now the question is whether that first strike becomes a turning point for a captain, and a club, desperate to prove that last season’s pain belongs firmly in the past.
