BARROW boss Stephen Clemence defended his decision not to name a goalkeeper on his bench after his side’s draw with Swindon Town. 

Paul Farman was sent off for handling well outside his area in the 42nd minute, leaving makeshift stopper Rory Feely to take over.

The one-time Gaelic footballer produced some fine saves to almost secure the Bluebirds a hard-fought three points after Ged Garner’s first-half effort.

But there was last-second heartbreak as the Irishman let Danny Butterworth’s speculative strike slip through his grasp.

“I have done it from a good place,” admitted Clemence. 

“I do it to try and win football matches.

“On average, in League Two in the last few seasons, it’s only been eight times a season where a sub goalie comes on. 

“I took that chance. And if you look at the way our substitutes have performed in our league and cup games this season the majority of times they have had an influence. 

“I thought our outfield players could influence the game more. You don’t bring on a sub goalkeeper very often.

“Typically, the first time we do it we don’t have a keeper to back up Farms. 

“Rory can be proud of his performance. I thought he was absolutely fantastic.

“He made some good saves, and his decision making was good considering he hasn’t played in goal before.

“Because he had done so well and the crowd was singing his name, he got confident and probably tried to catch it and maybe could have pushed it away. But it happened and we move on.

“He’s made a mistake, but so what? He’s had the courage to go in there. He’s had no hesitation to put those gloves on, and he can be proud of himself.

“I am not devastated at all. At half-time if you had offered me a point I would probably have taken it.”

It was an incident-packed encounter with Swindon finishing the game a man light after Harry Smith saw red in the second half.

“It wasn’t the game I was expecting when I woke up,” insisted the former Gillingham boss.

“It was a bit of a freak game, and I’m hoping we don’t have too many of them as the season goes on. 

“I am as proud of the boys as I have been ever since I’ve been here. They were fantastic.

“I don’t think we started the game great or played as we have done to this point.

“But we got ourselves a goal ahead. Unfortunately, we lost Farms and went down to 10 men.

“The boys have had to defend for large, large parts of the game. To a man they were fantastic.

“The boys’ character was tremendous, and I’ve never questioned that since I’ve been here, I never will question that. 

“When they went down to 10 men, I think our boys were just spent. They had worked so hard.

“I thought there were a lot of tired legs at the end, and we couldn’t get away from our box. 

“We probably made one or two mistakes because of tiredness when it was 10 versus 10, but I would never hold that against them.”