With Grimsby crashing to a 3-0 defeat, my feeling at the end of yesterday's game was a strange one. Usually with a game that was so important, where with fifteen minutes left we were mathematically safe, a goal in the 90th minute to lose it would surely leave you gutted and deflated would it not? But there I was, immediately unbothered by the goal we had just conceded, knowing that despite this we were in a far stronger position than we were at the start of the day. Grimsby must win their remaining three games, it's that simple. One of them is against us, and the thrill-seeking side of me still wants something riding on it when we go there, but realistically we are safe in my opinion.
The 90th minute goal was not the most annoying thing of the day however. What really got to me, and had me angrier than anything during the game was the fact that only four of the eleven men on the pitch even came close to the fans to applaud a decent vocal effort throughout the game. Some of them just walked off without a moment's thought. Yes you're going to be frustrated at losing in such a manner, but it's another example for me of what is wrong with a lot of this team. As has it come across on some occasions, many of them don't particularly appear to care about the club or it's fans, and that is a fundamental issue.
It is one of many missing pieces in the Barnet jigsaw. I will ask the question again. How can clubs like Dagenham and Aldershot come up and surpass us, sitting in the Playoffs as they currently are, whereas we continually sit and embroil ourselves in looking over our shoulders at relegation until late in the season and relying on other teams' results to keep us safe?
Maybe we're just going to have to carry on like this for a while until the issues are resolved. After five years, we have stood practically still as a football club. Yes there's The Hive and there's your foundation in place, but it's very hard to think about that when you are 22nd in League Two and show no signs of bringing glory to a suffering fanbase. It was a reasonable turnout yesterday, I honestly expected it to be around half of the 159 that were there, owing to the tidal wave of apathy around the club at present. It was a strange one though, every so often you get a game where you just don't recognise a large percentage of the away support. Usually you can go to an away game, have a walk around the concourse and think that you recognise many of the people there, but yesterday was just one of those random ones where a lot of people just seem to have appeared out of nowhere. Very strange. More than welcome obviously, the more we get along the better, but still very strange.
As for the game, it was a pretty drab affair. We were doing a job and doing it relatively well, compared to some of the roll over and die performances this year, see Tuesday's most recent example. Bradford were playing like a team with nothing to play for and looking forward to a World Cup summer. Indeed, before the game they were the only side who were mathematically incapable of going either up or down, so it had a bit of an end of season feel for the home side whereas for us, we had a touch more riding on it.
So The Bantams, in their smart, all claret attire, sauntered, strolled and cantered about in the Yorkshire sun allowing us to take the game to them. We were playing OK, Ed Upson was allowed plenty of long range efforts, trying to emulate last Saturday's stunner against Macclesfield to no avail. We huffed and puffed but couldn't create a clear chance, whereas Bradford's pedestrian play left Jake Cole standing about, probably a little bit bored.
Around the half hour mark though, Albert Adomah picked up a pass with a smart first touch and applied an expert finish across the face of the despairing Bradford goalkeeper. If that is to be his last goal in a Barnet shirt, we'll have seen few better. Not his best goal no, but in terms of the way he got himself into that position in the first place and steadied his body to pick his spot and finish so well, it was up there if you ask me.
Bradford came out in the second half and stepped it up a notch. They had clearly sharpened up their act and were beginning to make the slightest inrodes into the Barnet half which they were not in the previous period. The Bees defence remained resolute but there seemed to be an air of inevitability about the eventual outcome. Frantic checking and sharing of the Grimsby scoreline was rife throughout the away end as at this point, we were safe for another year. As such, when Bradford equalised with 78 on the clock, I wasn't too worried.
Those around me were showing frustration and annoyance but I just sat pensively, continuing to admire Bradford's impressive home, safe in the knowledge that with Grimsby three down, what happened here wasn't life or death. That feeling continued when Bradford won it in injury time, which was a harsh reflection on the game and the hard work we put in but as I said above, we were still going to be in a stronger position than we had been two hours previously. It would have been nice for Adomah to have won it with a superb effort late on which was well tipped onto the crossbar.
My overriding feeling is still the same. This season needs to end fast and we need something in the summer to re-ignite our belief and passion in this team and club. Something needs to change, that much is strikingly clear. Something to give us hope that we can go to places like Bradford and have a scrap of anything to get excited about.
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