The Bees are a team who have shown, due to performances most notably against Rotherham United at Underhill and Charlton away, that they can play well, yet have trouble putting the ball into the back of the net. If teams in League 2 could get bonus points from attacking build up play alone, I think Barnet would be sitting comfortably in the middle of the table. Unfortunately, it’s not like that, and goals are the only thing that can win you games.
Thankfully, on Saturday, Barnet scored 4 against Northampton with only one goal in reply. I have been told by various people, including Jaybee, that it was one of the best Barnet performances in recent years. Unfortunately, I was down on the south coast in Dorchester attending my Uncle’s 25th wedding anniversary celebrations. So, as is the case whenever I can’t attend a Barnet match, I was glued into the BBC website on my phone checking the latest score. When it came up on the minute by minute updates saying:
5:12 GOAL - Leon McKenzie: Barnet 0 - 1 Northampton,
I feared the worst. It didn’t come as a total shock to me, it happens seemingly every week with Barnet, but I was obviously still disappointed as come the end of the season I think that Northampton will be one of the teams in and around the relegation zone, like us.
So thank goodness when it flashed up just minute’s later reading:
8:14 Sent off Liam Davis is sent off by the referee.
Quickly followed by:
9:40 GOAL - Steven Kabba: Steven Kabba scores a penalty. Barnet 1-1 Northampton.
I must have checked my phone three or four times- just in case their might have been a misprint and actually it was Barnet who had a man sent off, conceded a penalty, and then losing 2-0. I always say that I am never going to trust the BBC again, after them making a series of mistakes in the past which I’m not going to go into detail about now, but it was either that or having to rely on some awkwardly written text messages.
Normally supporting Barnet in situations like this, déjà vu occurs and the team messes it all up. But as I didn’t attened, I was witnessing on my phone the scorelines 2-1, 3-1 and eventually 4-1 flash up on my phone screen, just as I was downing another glass of red wine. It was a nice feeling that for once, we wouldn’t be considered the laughing stock of the weekend, and that we could jump one place up the table. I’m sure every Barnet fan was looking forward to the game on Tuesday night for the match against Gillingham.
Well, not quite. Out of the 2,519 fans in the stadium, 1,206 of them were Gills fans. It seemed to me that they could have managed to bring enough to fill the entire capacity of Underhill. Barnet only took 250 fans to Wycombe on a Tuesday night. I think that that proves why Barnet always struggle at the wrong end of the table. Simply because there are not enough fans. It can’t be a coincidence that as soon as Chesterfield get a beautiful, new stadium, they get far more fans through the turnstiles than they did at Saltergate. Barnet have a fan base that would suit a mid table Conference team. Not in a thousand years can a team with Barnet’s assets move forward and get into a higher division without fans pouring onto the East Terrace, or the South Stand, or prefrably a brand spanking new stadium. So come on, invite your friend, family, or whatever, lets get fans pouring into matches. If the council sees that there is a sufficient fan base, then maybe a suitable site for a new stadium may be found.
Anyway, for the first time I can remember, I was backing Barnet to beat Gillingham and climb above them in the table. At Charlton, we were by far the better team and very unlucky to lose the game, but their were some very positive signs. I can only presume and go by what I’ve read and been told; that Barnet were fantastic and could have actually scored more than 4 goals.
It was a shame that we conceded two very poor goals against Gillingham. I’m sure Mark Stimson will not be happy with the goals we conceded against his former club. For their second goal, their player was allowed to run about 40 yards unchallenged, before scoring from the edge of the area without any defenders even trying to attempt blocking the shot. We were 1-0 up at half time and yet again, a few lapses in concentration had huge consequences. Gillingham must have been on a high. Just a few days before they won their first away game in about 35 attempts, at Oxford. Not sure what odds they were giving on Gillingham doing their impression of a London Bus with two arriving at once, but that’s what happened I’m afraid.
Abebayo Akinfenwa, as he must get everywhere he goes, got stick for his rather large frame. But it was nice to see that he can take a joke, having a laugh with the home fans at his own expense.
It was also, a rather frosty welcome back to Underhill for our former manager Ian Hendon and Andy Hessenthaler who was playing for Barnet into his forties. After he got sacked by Barnet with just 2 games to go of last season, Hendon was at Blue Square South side Dover for all of 18 days during the summer, before he quit and became his former predecessor’s assistant down in Kent. All rather confusing, I know. Dover recently knocked out Gillingham in the F.A. Cup with a side that included a number of former Barnet players, including Adam Birchall who scored what I call ‘a screamer’ of a goal that day. I will forever dub that match ‘Gillingham 0- 2 Former Barnet Reserves.’
Yet again, the Barnet players will just have to pick themselves back up again and get back into their ‘wining ways.’ Due to our extremely unfortunate defeat in the F.A. Cup replay at Charlton, Barnet do not have a match this weekend, but if the whether hold up, I will hopefully be at The Kassam Stadium in Oxford the Saturday after reporting for Barnet-Mad.
(Try,) and enjoy the Barnet weekend off!
