Don Barker (Jon Morrison) 2004-2005

First Regular Appearance: 8.1 (#325) Down  Sunday 17th October 2004

Last Regular Appearance: 8.32 (#356) Play Off  Sunday 29th May 2005

Duration: EP: 325 - 356  |  SE: 8.1 – 8.32

Position: Manager (2004-2005) / West Ham Director of Football (2005)

Last Seen: Driving his petrol-laden car head on into the Harchester team coach, after being found out for Fletch’s death.

Don was born in Scotland in 1949. As a player, he was the hard-natured figure of the squad, a leader whose questionable methods went unchallenged because his team mates were in awe of or too intimidated to go against. It almost seemed as Don would have fitted the army better than a football club, and weakness or indecision was about the worst thing you could show in his presence. Don’s managerial career began in 1982, with his daughter Jodie born the same year, and he raised her as he would the son he didn't have, Mrs Barker dying in untold circumstances while Jodie was growing up.

Over twenty years, Don managed across the First to Third Divisions, alongside the Ryman’s League and Vauxhall Conference. By 2004, Barker was boss at Wigan when approached by millionaire entrepreneur Eli Knox about taking over if he bought the newly relegated Harchester United. Don revels in the mission, believing he can take the Dragons back to the top flight. Don’s willingness to punish those he sees as not being team players is shown early on, when he abandons Tommy Valentine to make a ten mile run back to the team hotel in Portugal in the sweltering heat.

Barker was also determined to straighten out Clyde Connelly. It wasn’t that Clyde didn't have the potential in Barker's eyes, it was how he conducted himself and his rallying against Barker knowing best for his playing position. Already struggling in a league lower than he is used to, when Frank beats Clyde up, Clyde uses it to go public on his unhappiness at Barker’s regime. But Don, being a regular visitor to strip clubs, uses an innocent encounter between Clyde and a lap dancer to remind Clyde he will always be a step ahead of him. Clyde is now in a serious depression, and feeling he is trapped in a world of fear, kills himself by jumping from the roof of the Dragon's Lair. Although Clyde’s mother holds Don responsible for her son’s death, Barker manages to avoid being the sacrificial lamb thanks to a dastardly lie from Ryan that Clyde was the one having an affair with Chelsea Wright, and her leaving him caused his suicide.

When Curtis informs Don he caught Frank in a compromising position with another man, Barker assaults his son-in-law, and forces Curtis to tell Jodie what he saw Frank doing. After Eli loses Tommy to Spartak Moscow in a bet, Don tries to force his hand in signing a new player by staging a protest with the HCRC. When this results in a riot at the Southampton game, Eli threatens to fire both Don and Dean unless they win the upcoming Lazio game. Don has a plan to ensure they do - first manipulating Dean into blackmailing rioting supporters to make racist chants and then use youth team keeper Nathan Woods to fake a coin throwing injury, in order to get the match abandoned and the points awarded to Harchester.

Barker’s eye for the younger woman is ignited when he meets Nicole Caskey, wife of hard-up midfielder Carl. Discovering how Carl’s arrival is down to a plot between Fletch and Dean to catch Barker in a bribe and force his resignation, Don tells Nicole Carl will only play if she sleeps with him. Desperate for the money, Nicole is forced to go through with it, but with the help of Fletch and Gina, she records Barker on camera making his continued demands for her to sleep with him. When Dean shows the tape to the dressing room, they force Don to leave the club.

Don is next heard to be working for West Ham, as their Director of Football. He isn’t finished with Harchester though, and drags Fletch into a plot to keep Ryan from playing against West Ham. Fletch is desperate for the money after learning he will be let go at the end of the season, and believes he will be spiking Ryan’s water bottle with eye drops. When the water bottles get mixed up, Gina ends up drinking from the spiked bottle and collapses, the effect being from cyanide poisoning. Don leaves Fletch to be charged, but on the day before the Play Off final he is bailed by the team.

Barker is having one last look around the Dragon's Lair when he and Fletch come face to face and are involved in a full-on fight in the dressing room. Barker is clinging onto the physio bench with Fletch on his back, and when he lets go the two men are thrown backwards with the weight of Don putting Fletch’s head through a coat peg. After failing to revive Fletch, Don hides his body in the boot of his pool car, planning to use petrol canisters to burn it. He is then usurped by Jodie, who changes her dad’s plans and makes him go to the Play Off in Cardiff. When Ryan steals Don’s car, he is stopped by the police who open the boot and find Fletch’s body.

The stress has flared up Don’s angina problems, and making a last ditch attempt to escape, gains entry to his car and faces the Harchester coach with the team celebrating their promotion back to the Premiership. Knowing he is facing prison for Fletch’s death, Barker decides to end it all and drives directly into the Harchester coach. The petrol canisters cause a massive explosion on impact, with Don taking the team with him in death.