If there's one club that knows how to bring you up and knock you down, it's Barnet.
Whilst at no point was I going to get carried away personally, I couldn't help but notice the huge feeling of disappointment after a mere 15 minutes of Saturday's debacle. This feeling was laced with a tinge of horrifying inevitability from those of who know better than put stock into Barnet fulfilling any promise that is served.
If that sounds as if I'm snobbishly pointing my nose up at those of you who did get a little excited then that was not my aim. I mean, it is a massive coup. To attract an individual of the calibre of Edgar Davids to Barnet Football Club should be something to get very excited about. The reaction reverberated around the football world as this household name suddenly found himself in charge of affairs at Underhill. Why shouldn't we be excited?
To me, the reaction from most Barnet fans was as it should have been. Pure excitement. Unfortunately, I couldn't share it. There seemed to be a hint of naivety that suggested that finally we'd found the answer to our problems and that this was going to sort us right out. That's just the feeling I got, it may not have been the case. For me, it was unbelievable, it was something that could have many more positives attributed to it than negatives, however those little niggling negatives were poking away at me incessantly. Has he ever seen a League Two game? Will he be our Sol Campbell? What suggests that he'll be able to turn this squad around? Isn't this all a little desperate? As I say, I was largely positive, though I was never going to get the buzz that appeared to be around the ground before kick off.
A buzz is what it was. The crowd was swollen to over 3,000, which included a heavy and very impressive following from the West Country. Still, that sort of crowd for us these days can comfortably be considered a good one. Clearly, it was a good thing in that this helped to bring the numbers in, though what they were about to see nearly guaranteed that they will not be back for the foreseeable future.
Seasoned Barnet fans know that we have an incredible propensity to balls everything up. Within fifteen minutes, the optimism and enthusiasm that had been garnered was dispatched into outer space. We were two goals down and the grand debut of the other big name signing Collins John had been cut short after he hobbled off with injury. Honestly. ONLY Barnet could possibly fuck up such a big occasion so monumentally. The penalty that opened the scoring after two minutes was harsh in the extreme, however the basic nature of the second goal underlined and highlighted one of the myriad of problems we have had this season: defending set-pieces. Morbid disappointment descended once more, but for some of us, it was unfortunately too obvious.
In no way did I enjoy the fact that I'd predicted it. I'm not enjoying us playing this way, despite the fact that I now find writing negative notes about this terribly unfulfilling football club as natural as breathing. I don't like doing it. Believe it or not, I still feel for Robson, but I can absolutely empathise with the growing level of concern regarding his stewardship. Davids is now in to assist, and one wonders whether Robson may feel a tad undermined at this point. One could argue that he deserves to be undermined after our worst league start in living memory. We all had our concerns at the start of the season, but I can't imagine that anyone would have had to us to start THIS badly.
The goal we scored soon after John's withdrawal suggested that really, Plymouth weren't that good either, with their manager coming under some pressure as they languish in the lower echelons of the basement division. In truth though, they dominated and we were so abject it beggared belief. After the promise shown in games like Southend and Fleetwood, to perform like this shows that it's going to take some form of minor miracle to turn this around. We appear to be able to flick between 'playing alright and showing some promise' and 'absolute shit' with the emphasis firmly on the latter.
No one is seriously suggesting that Davids' appointment on Thursday was going to change things immediately, but the pressure is on to do it very fast. We are already cut well adrift at the foot of the league, and drastic changes are required. If we carry on failing to win, there'll be no way back. We are even dangerously close to beating our record of winless competitive matches, set in 1993/1994, though we all know the circumstances of that season.
Plymouth were so very comfortable that it became a pain to watch. Enough was enough for me when one of the smallest players on the pitch climbed highest from a free-kick to head home. The underlined and highlighted defensive point was accompanied by some flashing lights and elevated to billboard status with the absurd nature of this goal. Graham Stack had earlier pulled off an outstanding stop to keep us in the game, but he didn't have much hope with this. Great header it was, however he was a very small person. What does this say about our defence?
I was off and out of the door with this one. Their fourth goal looked great on the telly. A collective laugh could be felt from around the footballing nation, all at our expense. It's not really very nice, is it? Like I say, I don't like writing all of this!
Next up we are going to be treated to a repeat dose of Friday night football. That was of course the ultra-successful experiment of last season. Still, I've got a few bits to do this weekend so at least it allows me a bit of free time. Plus I can watch Soccer Saturday safe in the knowledge that my head won't be in my hands, once again uttering the phrase, 'typical Barnet'.
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