Last updated on .From the section Barrow

Barrow players and fans on their shared bus back to Cumbria

"You never know what you're going to get on Barrow away days because things never seem to go to plan."

Barrow's recent history has been eventful to say the least as the Cumbrian club has bounced around the higher echelons of non-league football since last appearing in the Football League nearly 50 years ago.

With the side seven points clear at the top of the National League and seemingly closing in on promotion, surely nothing could go wrong now?

But Tuesday's 740-mile round-trip to Dover Athletic proved to be anything but plain sailing and became an away day that will live long in the memory for the 23 fans that made their way from Holker Street to The Crabble.

It started off well - Barrow manager Ian Evatt bought the 23 sausage and bacon rolls for the team's journey, which began at 10:00 GMT for a 19:45 GMT kick-off in Kent, and the fans got to the ground an hour before the game began.

But then things went wrong...

A late loss to reflect on

John Rooney's penalty levelled the scores at Dover before the hosts got a late winner

Having gone behind to Will De Havilland's early strike, Barrow searched for an equaliser and found it when John Rooney - former England striker Wayne's younger brother - slotted home an 81st-minute penalty.

But Michael Woods got Dover's winner with two minutes to go to break the travelling fans' hearts.

"We threw everything at it," Barrow fan Taylor Nelson told BBC Sport. "We made all three changes and ended up with five strikers up front to try and get something out of the game - and that worked.

"But from that point Dover realised they were able to be less conservative and attack us as we lacked numbers at the back. They exploited it perfectly."

Can we catch a lift?

The Barrow fans who made the journey to Dover

After getting on board the bus home, the 23 fans had expected to make a quick getaway in the hope they might be back in Barrow by around 0500 GMT and grab an hour or two's sleep.

It was not to be.

"There was a lot of confusion," Taylor said. "Eventually the message was conveyed that we were having to wait for the team because their coach had broken down.

"We offered them the space on our bus so we had to wait for them to get showered and changed.

"Before they came on we had a brief discussion and said to try to avoid football talk," added Taylor, who had goalscorer Rooney and team-mate Scott Quigley sitting behind him.

"It was a bit awkward, but we avoided football talk where possible and kept discussions outside football to save any embarrassment."

With the confusion surrounding how the team would get home there was no post-match food for the players to eat.

That meant a stop at the motorway services as the players bought what any finely-honed athlete would eat after a game - fried chicken.

"We didn't realise they were going to take so long," joked Taylor.

"We just thought they were going to nip to the shop and get something quick, so we all sat and waited on the coach expecting them to come back rather quickly. But instead we were all waiting for about half an hour as they were queuing up for KFC orders.

"Then there were lots of diversions and that held us up even more - the journey took an hour-and-a-half more than it needed to."

Sleep's for wimps...

Eighteen-year-old student Taylor finally got home at 0700 GMT on Wednesday after the bus containing fans and players arrived back at Holker Street 15 minutes earlier.

But there was no time for him to catch any shut-eye.

"I've had no sleep," he added. "I was straight to college for a politics lesson at 1000."

Barrow's next game is a comparatively short 550-mile round-trip to Barnet on Saturday in the FA Trophy.

Let's hope the wheels don't come off - either figuratively or metaphorically.