|
Boxing Gloves
|
|
Can two points dropped also feel like a win?
|
By:
Max Bygraves
|
27/12/2024
|
|
|
This article has been viewed 183 times.
|
|
Boxing Day football. One of this country’s best festive traditions. Despite this, when I actually worked it out on my way home, it was the first time (for a wide range of circumstances) in the best part of a decade I’d seen Barnet play live on Boxing Day.
Walking to the ground, it actually felt like we were en route to a proper game. There were black and amber scarves noted on the drive up Camrose Avenue and it was a purposeful stride amongst something resembling a crowd towards the turnstiles.
2430 a much healthier, more like it, attendance figure later announced. There were clearly a number of first timers there - the more the merrier. Let’s hope the goals and drama of the afternoon made a few think about returning. I brought along my sister in law’s boyfriend to give him a get out of jail card from looking after my kids and their cousins for the afternoon. On balance, I think he was satisfied he made the decision to come.
Upon arrival at the ground, despite it being the day after Christmas, it was straight into the club shop to make a purchase I’d been non-committal over for a while. No dilly dallying or thinking about it and backing out. In, pay, out.
Although it is only my son’s third birthday next week, he has been telling several family members in the build up to Christmas that he wants a Barnet shirt. When attempts have been made to maybe dissuade this, he’s been very clear he saw children’s ones in the shop on his last visit. I’ve created a monster. New toys distracted him on Christmas Day but for the next event, the plunge has been taken. Oh and I couldn’t buy one for him and not his sister, could I? An expensive afternoon, even before kick off.
Finally onto the match itself and the notable thing as the teams lined up (aside from the visitors simple but smart away ensemble) was the absence of Nicke Kabamba. Consigned to the bench with Stead back in the line up. In my eyes, there’s always room for both of them. There have been a few moans and groans aimed Nicke’s way in recent weeks. We are all entitled to our views but I find this one a particularly tricky one to get on board with. His output in a Barnet shirt, in his role as our first proper number 9 in several years, has been nothing short of outstanding. He scores goals and, as recently as the previous match, played a vital role in the build up to one he didn’t. We’ve stuck by strikers in lean spells before now (he’s not in one, he scored two games back) so I find calls for him to be out the side strange. Not a decision from the manager I was on board with, anyway.
Despite a few changes in personnel, the viewing spectacle of the first ten minutes was a bit of a Deja vu to the last two home games. All of the ball and looking in control. Which way would it go from here?
The first twist of the afternoon went more like against Halifax than Ebbsfleet. On twenty one minutes, a worrying amount of space opened up as a Sutton attack was allowed to quickly flourish. Once through the midfield and bearing down on goal, Nick Hayes appeared to have weights in his boots as he stayed static rather than closing the angle. Ashley Nadesan finished well, but it was a disappointing goal to concede.
Exactly as against Halifax, the goalscorer had just been the subject of a chat and customary Wikipedia search of their career by me and my regular accomplice. At the next home game, we’ll just avoid any conversation about the opposition players at all.
From the kick off, Sutton put eleven behind the ball and it was abundantly clear they did not want to do anything more than hang on for the rest of the afternoon. And who can blame them? They’re not a bad bet for a top 7 finish but it’s not been the smooth ride they’d have hoped for on their return to non league thus far. This game will have felt like the opportunity for a big turning point.
On the half hour mark, the game was opened up again following some excellent work by Ryan Glover. Cutting inside from the left wing, he decided to try his luck and bend one towards the top corner. The shot took a deflection (another similarity to last Saturday) but the strike was clean enough that all this seemed to do was propel the flight of the ball that little bit more. A very satisfying one to see hit the net. Game on.
Things looked to be moving in the right direction from here. We continued to largely control possession and looked the more likely. Just prior to half time, Ade Oluwo rose to nod home our second goal. I’ll admit that I’d taken to beat the queue at the bar ever so slightly too early and subsequently just missed this. I’m reliably informed that it went in, in slow motion. Next home game it’s not my turn to do the pre-half time beer run, so shouldn’t be a repeat of such poor reporting.
We came back out for the second half and initially, there almost felt a touch of inevitability about us kicking on. After a fairly uneventful first ten or so minutes, the pendulum began to swing the other way.
Sutton began to exert some serious pressure. Twice mishit efforts at the back stick whimpered narrowly past the post, but the warning signs were there. A further nervy moment came when no one at the back nor Hayes decided to do anything about a cross. Thankfully, poor attacking led to nothing materialising and the ball bouncing away unclaimed.
In the sixty ninth minute however, parity was restored. Will Davies will have been delighted with the quality of his goal and there can be no debate it was well finished and devised. However, once more, it did feel like a little too much space and time made things possible.
By this stage, we’d already introduced Kabamba and Kanu. It was hopeful that the equaliser might jolt us into a positive response. Just a few minutes later, winning a corner seemed a step in the right direction. However, this proved to be the start of a disastrous sixty seconds.
Sutton broke from our corner down the left flank. Glover tracked back but didn’t make the strongest of challenges on the half way line. In the circumstances, a foul and yellow would have been worth taking. With him beaten, Kenlock was the next to have the task to defend. He managed to win the ball and get the right side of the attacker but what followed next was hideous. He clearly motioned his hand for Hayes to come. Once more, the keeper seemed to have an aversion to coming away from his goal but Kenlock’s next choice was utterly bizarre. A woefully under-hit tap back put the ball between the two of them and gave the Sutton attacker the easiest of jobs to poke home from close range. 2-3, two conceded in four minutes.
I said in the last game’s article about us keeping perspective of where we are - but there are some concerns we can’t hide away from. Off the top of my head, that’s at least the fourth time this season where we’ve conceded two quick fire goals and there are more than just four times where one has been left shaking their head at some of the errors.
I read some very reasonable views on Twitter post-match about us tempering goalkeeping expectations from a regular reader. There was also a comment about how in 2022/23, our keeper out-performed to an almost absurdly consistent degree, regularly being man of the match. A very valid and interesting point.
Given all of this, and the furore around the manager’s goalkeeping selection during the second half of last season, it is little wonder this is a position coming in for such focus.
These articles are never about lambasting individuals or making anyone a scapegoat. I am also confident that pretty much anyone who has pulled on the shirt in the last few seasons have given it their all - not something we’ve always been able to say.
What I would suggest perhaps is that the goalkeeping position may need a similar evaluation from Brennan to this exact same point last year. The second choice did a good job although was largely untested in the FA Trophy a few weeks ago. Time for him to get a league start on New Year’s Day? Hayes looked shot of confidence throughout - kicking, crosses and indecision in big moments. There have been several wobbles over the past few months and arguably, a change might do everyone a favour in the short term and possibly even in the long-term for Hayes to get back to where his reputation on joining placed him.
Sutton’s quick fire double had occurred with more than fifteen minutes to go. As expected, they were happy to protect this advantage rather than try to add more. Cropper was introduced in the final ten for a much needed alternative route to chances via his throws. There was a lot of huffing and puffing but hope was certainly evaporating as the minutes ticked away.
The fourth official’s board displaying eight minutes got a significant ‘come on!’ from the crowd. Despite the higher numbers in, it wasn’t the best atmosphere wise. Credit to the kids who tried at the back of Block F but it sounded like they were slightly down on their usual numbers and noise. I hope the core of that group stay engaged and attending. They have made a real difference to making the place feel more like a football ground when they’re making noise en masse.
In the 93rd minute, there was so nearly reason for us all to make lots of noise. Mark Shelton found himself in a decent amount of room with time and space to open up his body to place one in. Given his form in front of goal this season, you’d have expected the net to ripple. Instead, it was the clang of the post. Head in hands. Agonising.
Sutton were playing for any time they could get - and fair play to them. A real shithousery masterclass. Talking to someone on the way out, it was highlighted that perhaps this darker side to the game is less evident in our current ranks. We have a lot of quality in the team, but as someone else put to me at another recent game, “no nutters.”
Someone like an Ian Hendon or even a more scaled down Dale Gorman is certainly missed in moments where teams are very much playing the game against us. Recruitment has been excellent for some time now, but perhaps any future additions need to be of a slightly different personality for effective balance and managing certain situations.
As the clock rolled past the allotted eight minutes, the ref correctly added on for Sutton’s relentless time wasting. In the final moments, we were awarded a fairly soft free kick out wide on the left. It was very much now or never.
Nick Hayes was sent up into the box. The chance for real redemption and story making as he bounded forward. Who doesn’t love a goalkeeper up for a last gasp set piece?
I haven’t seen it back yet and I don’t want to before writing how it unfolded. From my angle, Hayes went into the box and caused general carnage and confusion. The cross came in, their keeper appeared to drop a real clanger and in the melee, Ryan Glover popped up with his second goal of the afternoon in the 99th minute. You really cannot whack moments like that. Brilliant chaos.
There was time for the game to restart and a hopeful ball up the pitch before the referee drew things to a close. On the balance of the game, a point a piece was probably about right. The nature of a draw like that means you come out the ground feeling like you’ve won even though just minutes earlier it felt like the end of the world. Football eh?
The tannoy deemed the last gasp equaliser worthy of Depeche Mode. Controversial although anything above that awful ‘encore’ instrumental we thankfully very rarely are subjected to these days.
York’s game was postponed at Oldham due to fog in the late kick off - probably the best outcome we could have asked for there. Both will have to do it again midweek to clog up their schedules. Most pleasing. Forest Green also missed an opportunity to make up ground with a 1-1 at Tamworth to make our Christmas draw frustrations. Subsequently, we end 2024 top of the league.
It’s funny to be going into the new year in 1st place and not completely delighted. A bumpy set of festive results when we’ve been so good at home undoubtedly changes the feel somewhat. However, we find ourselves in a great position still and still have the unbeaten home record in tact.
January sees a spate of tricky away games following December fixtures exclusively at The Hive. Eastleigh on New Year’s Day will not be an easy start to 2025. For those unable to make the trip to Hampshire, the game is being shown in The Railway Tavern.
Happy New Year to you all. Thank you for another year of generally amusing, interesting and enjoyable interactions via our social media and those in person. Your readership here is greatly appreciated - we’ll carry on in 2025 whilst there’s still an audience!
Let’s hope in the coming year, The Bees can go one better…
|
|
|
All Articles By This Author:
Other Articles By Category
|