It was a bumper crowd for this derby game, and pre match, the atmosphere between the two sets of supporters was red hot. You would have thought this could have given Barnet a home advantage, but being Barnet, nothing makes a difference. The only way we have beaten teams so far this season, is when our opponents have been awful.
I’ve noticed that Barnet tend to start games on the front foot, and then about 15 minutes into games, fade away. Kevin Gallen started against Stevenage, and twice he was through one on one with the keeper, and both times he fluffed his opportunities. He came from Luton for goodness sake, surely you’d think he could handle pressure from a feisty crowd. If he could have tucked one of those chances away, we might have gone and drawn the game, (we are Barnet, not Bradford remember).
If you support Barnet, you’re delighted when you draw, believe me. Just the satisfaction that actually, we could match the standard of our opposition is very heart warming. In Barnet, you are talking about a team that can lose the match after the final whistle has been blown. That’s how bad they are. You would wonder if our current team, from last season’s player of the year Jake Cole, through to Mark Marshall, could be capable of winning promotion from the Evo-Stick First Division South which consists of teams such as Glapwell, Market Drayton Town and ShepShed Dynamo. Sorry if fans from those three clubs are in any way offended. If you type in Mark Stimson into the Google Search Engine, you can see exactly how unpopular he was at Gillingham. I think he is going to become just as unpopular here at Barnet, I’m afraid to say.
Some Bees supporters on Tuesday night, threw their season tickets onto the pitch when Stevenage scored their third goal. Am I surprised? Well, frankly I don’t care. If fans, (there are very few of us as there is,) are going to give up when the going gets tough, then so be it. We were so bad on Tuesday night, that I picked Rossi Jarvis as Barnet’s man of the match. He was the only player who showed determination to get a goal back, yet he was admittedly poor. Of course, there is no point crying over spilt milk. What is done is done, and now Barnet have to move forward. I’m not sure how, but that is the only option.
Chesterfield and Port Vale fans have no idea how lucky they are; money to spend on players, at the right end of the table, and large fan bases and good stadiums. Barnet have approximately none of those attributes.
Hopefully, when I next write a blog on this website, we will have shocked Charlton Athletic and be through to the second round of the F.A. Cup. There is still a small possibility that we could be playing Hendon at some stage. This competition is full of surprises, so lets keep our fingers crossed.
