The Bees travel to Port Vale for the opening match of the 2012/13 season. Barnet and Port Vale have met ten times before. Barnet have won 3 times, Port Vale 4 and 3 have been drawn; all goalless. Two games were in the Football League Division Two (now League One) during Barnet’s only season in the third tier of the league.
The first of the two games that season was played at Vale Park, in August, and Barnet crashed to a 6-0 defeat. Barnet held their own for the first 25 minutes against a well fancied Vale side and Vale found themselves down to 10 men after Bees’ striker, Kelly Haag was hauled down when clear through. However, Barnet then collapsed and Port Vale started to take the Barnet defence apart. However, the game is most known for the wonderful support of the Bees’ away fans who never stopped cheering on the team, banging a tune in support of the team against the corrugated iron at the back of the visitors end.
Barnet had nearly folded in the summer prior to that season and had lost most of the players that had won them promotion the season before due to action taken by the football league. This had the effect of knitting the Barnet fans together. However, it did leave the Port Vale fans feeling rather bemused as to why the Barnet fans were still cheering their team so much when they were 6-0 down!!!
The Barnet side that day was; Pape, Newson, Cooper, Smith, Walker, Barnett, Marwood, Close, Haag, Hoddle, Lynch. Subs: Evans, Carter.
In the return at Underhill in November, Barnet performed much better but Port Vale ran out 3-2 winners. Zeke Rowe and Kelly Haag scored the Barnet goals.
In 2008/09, the two sides met at Vale Park and played out a goalless draw. On the last day of the season, Port Vale beat Barnet 2-1 at Underhill with the Bees playing a number of squad players in the side. Abu Ogogo, in his last game for the club, was sent off in the first half for denying Vale a goal and giving away a penalty by using his hand to stop the ball going into the net. Danny Hart scored for Barnet in the last minute.
In November 2009, the two sides played a goalless draw at Underhill in a match which the Bees dominated and really should have won. In the return at Vale Park, Barnet claimed three very valuable points from a 2-0 win with John O'Flynn scoring both goals.
The Bees were unbeaten against Port Vale in 2010/11 as well, playing out a goalless draw at Vale Park in January and, of course, the Bees defeated Vale on the last day of the season at Underhill with Izale McLeod's penalty, the only goal of a game which ensured the club's League Two safety. (For a much more detailed account of this game see the 'Classic Encounters' section of the Barnet Mad website).
Last season, 2011/12, Vale won 3-1 at Underhill in August in the Bees' opening home league game of the season, with Jason Price scoring for the Bees, but Barnet gained a suitable revenge in the game at Vale Park, winning 2-1 in March with goals from Andy Yiadom, his first ever goal for the club and Ben May, scoring on his debut after arriving on loan from Stevenage. Indeed, Barnet are now unbeaten in their four trips to Burslem which augers well for Saturday!!
