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Ugly
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Win Is A Win
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By:
Eric Hitchmo
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05/01/2012
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More On Bristol Rovers
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Quite a few times I've said it this season, a win is a win. That phrase can certainly be applied to Monday's laborious victory over Bristol Rovers, as two dreadful teams took to the field in an attempt to be worse than eachother. Goodness me, it was a chore, but eventually a long ball broke through the defence of the visitors and was classily finished by Izale McLeod, albeit thanks to some hesitation from the Rovers goalkeeper. Clovis Kamdjo was on home to strike home a loose ball late on to ensure that 2012 would start in an efficient manner.
The match, for me, largely harked of the Crawley farce on Friday previous. There was little, if any quality to be found anywhere on the pitch and the groans of the crowd increased as the minutes slowly passed. A light form of torture, perhaps. Ball after ball sailed into the North London sky, each of them with little aim or hope of success. Players on both sides had clearly not been encouraged to kick the ball along the floor, knocking the ball cross-field or into the channels for the frontmen to attempt to chase on to or hold up, depending on what random direction the ball was going. Invariably, the striker would be required to get back into position to defend a throw-in. The was repeated almost exclusively for a tiresome 90 minutes.
Izale McLeod's attitude is bought into question on a fairly regular basis, but I'm increasingly finding it harder to blame him when you see the supply he asked to work with. Now he is being ordered to play up there on his own, and chase around for 90 minutes for scraps of rubbish. When the inevitable happens, and he goes to a higher level to play in surroundings that he is clearly capable of, then I'm sure noone at Barnet FC will be able to blame him. He has scored nineteen goals already in all competitions and it makes you wonder where we would be without someone of such quality.
It speaks volumes that some of the more exciting passages of play were for moves that consisted of no more than four or five passes along the ground. It was never anything special, but the crowd roared and applauded as if it were some sort of miracle. They had become so accustomed to useless lower league punting, that the art of the ball rolling along grass had become almost forgotten. Over 2,000 home supporters were in attendance, but I would not speculate that many would have been enthralled by such an enthusiam draining affair. One of our brightest lights of this season, Sam Deering, as well as others, are being drastically underused as they continually watch balls fly above them. Deering on occasion has to go up for headers, anyone would wager that he is at a slight disadvantage with his stature, yet we persist in pumping hopeless balls in a forward direction. Play the ball along the floor, it might work a bit better with the players we have. Just a thought.
Barnet probably edged it on the balance of play, but Rovers may have a case to feel agrieved. They forced a couple of neat saves from Dean Brill, especially one from distance which was acrobatically tipped over the crossbar. Former Bee Scott McGleish, who received a warm welcome from admirers past, saw an audacious attempt clear the bar at 0-0 n the second half. It would have been some strike if it had gone in. The home team had opportunities too, it was not as if chances were at a premium like they were at Crawley, and eventually we were to nip into the lead through McLeod. Our visitors were extremely frail at the back, and it was down to a severe amount of hesistancy from all parties involved that the chance came about. McLeod is not the sort of player to need such an invitation twice. A neat, lofted finish got our noses in front.
More defensive frailty led to the second goal, Clovis Kamdjo chipping in with another, with which he was visibly pleased. Kamdjo grows on me all the time, and will surely soon be going down as a cult hero at Underhill. He's got all the hallmarks.
And so, the embarrassment of losing to Barnet has led another Board of Directors to part company with their manager. Paul Buckle, only in the job since the summer, was relieved of his duties at The Memorial Stadium. It's not hard to see why, they really were very poor. Their supporters, who travelled well (although nowhere near as many as we have seen previously) began to turn on their team in frustration. Quite similar to what we have seen in away games of our own of late.
Now we move on to our Johnstone's Paint Trophy Area Final. Swindon must first take on Wigan in the FA Cup, while we have eight days off owing to Bradford's continued interest in the competition. Whether that has too much of an effect remains to be seen, but this is getting pretty exciting when you think about it. 180 minutes from Wembley, regardless of the competition is an amazing prospect. We've got this far, I really hope we don't bottle it now.
For the record, should we make it, the fact that Lawrie Sanchez would be the man to do it would irk me somewhat. Credit where it is due and all that, but this reign so far has riled me more than any other in my near eleven years supporting Barnet. This is mere speculation, however going on previous form, I would wager that the man's reaction to this achievement would be one of glorious self-celebration.
Won't that be fun...
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