Mark Cooper’s side host Premier League opposition for the first time in their history in Tuesday’s second-round tie
“We’ve been described as the last outpost of the British Empire. It is a 40-mile cul-de-sac,” the Barrow chairman, Paul Hornby, says of the League Two club’s remote location off the A590. “People say stuff like Barrow is the end of the earth and then on another 30 miles.”
They have heard all the barbs before but hope there is room for a fresh shock when Aston Villa visit in the Carabao Cup second round on Tuesday. Barrow, who returned to the Football League last summer after a 48-year absence, drew top-flight Middlesbrough away in the FA Cup third round in 2009 and travelled to Sunderland of the Premier League a year later in the fourth round, but never have they hosted such esteemed opponents.