It was a horrendous afternoon of turbulent weather but Barnet sailed to victory in the calmest of manners against Woking.
I’ll start this by pointing out I watched this accompanied by my two very small children so my focus and perhaps eye was not fully in for all of it. Will do my best.
Woking at home is such standard Conference fayre. The kind of game you feel like you’ve seen a hundred times and on an afternoon such as this one, perhaps not the most enthralling of prospects.
Going against everything I’ve always said about the extortionate charge, for convenience with said small people in tow in the driving rain, for the first time ever, I parked just meters from the turnstile in the club car park. Convenience won here. I had no regrets before, during or after. Especially after.
The stand felt noticeably less busy than in recent games. Fair weather supporters aplenty absent with 1532 in attendance, 257 of those from Surrey. To be fair to the travelling support, they stood and made a fair racket until it became apparent they were going to get absolutely nothing from this one.
The way things started, this didn’t necessarily look the case. Woking very much had the better of the opening ten minutes, with an early header rattling the bar. This was their stand out moment, but the momentum (and gusty wind) very much appeared to be with them.
On 18 minutes, returning former skipper Dale Gorman received a yellow for a foul in dangerous territory. Nothing came from this directly but in the ensuing play, a loose ball was picked up by Rhys Browne (also facing his old side) who we are fast becoming aware, does not waste such opportunity. He coolly directed the ball past Woking’s Barclaysmen Offspring ‘keeper and gave the Bees the lead. No qualms
There wasn’t too much of note in the rest of the half. Oluwo made an outstanding block to deny a one-on-one opportunity just after the half hour mark. This following some weak distribution from Hayes. This does continue to be a slightly concerning feature of the Barnet number one’s spell at the club so far.
Whilst pleasing not to be in the freezing conditions of much of this week, the rain was really lashing down by the end of the first half, making more noise clattering off the roof than any support in either stand. Half time saw a club shop visit and two flags purchased for small ones. To scale against an under five, they’re definitely a bit big. There were of course no regrets having to manage these through the second half. You live and learn.
The second forty-five felt a lot more assured. Woking had had their chance. From the word go, Barnet were in control. After Tavares went close from a corner, a few minutes later Bailey Hobson doubled the lead. A slice of fortune undoubtedly after firing his initial effort at Jaaskelainan but making no mistake with the rebound.
This proved to be decisive. Woking offered very little back in the remaining near forty minutes. Dale Gorman was replaced just after the hour. He received warm applause from the Barnet fans - a decent servant in his two seasons with us. However, as he trudged past the away end, not all those present gave him too positive a send-off. Bit of a shame to see.
Barnet made changes as the half wore on and on another afternoon, it may have ended 4 or 5-0. Two efforts went agonisingly close in the latter stages but nothing was added to make this a more comprehensive result.
A routine, second gear 2-0 home win is always welcome. The kind of comfort you want on a bleak November afternoon.
It did feel like at full time everyone had had enough of the conditions as the team skipped the usual post-match on-pitch huddle after a clap and headed for the changing room before ‘I just can’t get enough’ had even really kicked in. Dean Brennan watching from the stands the simple explanation for this. Quite nice in a way to be able to be quite flippant about yet another home win, really.
28 points from 30 at home. 9 wins in 10. It’s impressive. And reason to look forward to December with three consecutive home games (now four, with Aveley in the Trophy). Merry Christmas, indeed.
However, before a month of not going too far (well, other than the usual painful schlepp from home to North West London - did you think I’d miss that one?), we have two considerable escapades before November is out.
Wednesday night sees us head to Somerset to play Yeovil Town. Forever a fixture I associate with us getting walloped 5-1 all wearing Santa hats two decades ago. There have been better times, since. On the back of their result this weekend, let’s hope for more of the same for both sides before a mammoth trek to Hartlepool.
If this time next week we’ve got another six points, it may be time to get over-excited, again.
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