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Not An End Of Season Review
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Where we are, where we’ve come from and where we might be going…
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By:
Max Bygraves
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19/05/2022
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This article has been viewed 1311 times.
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Last weekend saw the conclusion of a truly miserable campaign, with a fitting 2-4 defeat at The Hive against Bromley. This meant an end of season record of just 6 home wins out of 22 and an 18th place finish. It also broke an unwanted record of the most goals conceded in our professional history - a whopping 89 in just 44 games.
If we ignore last season’s debacle for a moment, on the grounds of it being behind closed doors, this is the worst season that fans have had to experience since finishing 18th in the Alliance Premier in 1981/82. 40 years ago.
For context, we came bottom of the Southern Premier (before the Alliance Premier was formed which remains now as the National League) in 1974/75 and finished 9th a level lower the following season before being champions in 1976/77 and returning to non-league’s elite. Thankfully, due to last season’s reprieve, we didn’t have to go head to head with 1975/76’s season a further level down to see if this would be our worst ever professional season - not yet, anyway.
The nature of some of the results this season has made it all the more undignified. 0-5 (twice, both at home), 0-6, 1-6, 1-4 and 3-7. To get properly spanked in more than 10% of your league games is really ugly.
Enough numbers, as much as we love stats here. The headline is that this is as bad as it’s been to be a Barnet fan for several generations. For anyone under the age of 40-45, they’ve never seen anything this poor.
So, can it get better or are we completely doomed? The outlook isn’t the brightest but I am going to try and look for a snippet of potential sunshine in the forecast…eventually.
Ominous Skies
Whilst there are some real haves and have nots in this league, I struggle a bit with the narrative we can be quite so far into the second bracket; given the much heralded 365 income The Hive should be bringing in. Or rather, the football club should be seeing to ensure being properly competitive at this level, at least.
The level of misery at Barnet in recent times does seem to go into BC (before Covid) and AD (After Darren [Currie]). The season and a bit BC back in non-league weren't particularly great but AD (since August 2020) it’s gone from bad to worse. Covid has impacted lots of businesses and indeed football clubs, but surely with the extent of the operation at our headquarters, we can’t legitimately play that card to the same extent as smaller clubs.
Altrincham, Woking, Wealdstone and Maidenhead United occupied the four league places directly above us. How sobering is that? Woking excepted; these are all part-time clubs although Altrincham are moving to full-time from this summer. That in itself leads to another problem - the league will be arguably even stronger next season.
The real dross has been relegated and the teams coming up generally look like bigger fish with more stickability than the minnows like Kings Lynn on their way out. Couple that with likely renewed efforts at the likes of Southend, Yeovil and Dagenham & Redbridge to push for promotion and you start running out of likely places where we could finish in our current context that don’t end with an R next to them.
If we’re going back to the weather forecast analogy, it really sounds like it’s cold and pissing down doesn’t it? Let’s attempt to move forward to end on a more upbeat tone, but I’d keep your brolly out.
Appeal
Despite the season being over, there’s been no mention at all of ticket news for next season. No update on season tickets or even match day prices. This seems unusual. I remember as a youngster trying to get my application form in as early as possible, usually by mid April to try and get booklet number 00001. I achieved this feat once but was as far down as 00006 for the title winning season in 2004/05. The shame.
Now, I’m going to try and keep from repeating things I’ve said about The Hive before and the obvious obstacles that come with us playing there and look at this practically.
If the chairman wants to make any sort of go (it's quite an if), probably not just for next season but with the club in general, surely this summer is the one where all the stops get pulled out with promotional ticket offers? Announcing these after the season’s end doesn’t help this as the standard early bird idea lots of clubs have usually try to entice fans in a moment of impulsivity at games towards the end of the season. Although maybe it’s best we left that this year given the last Hive victory came on March 15th.
But perhaps there is a grand plan? Stop laughing. If the announcement is soon, why not do something like the first 100 season tickets for £100 and the next X amount for another reduction? That may tempt a few. Then in conjunction with that or alternatively, do a Buy One Get One Free offer from say 1st June - 30th June for £300. That may be ambitious when one currently costs £384, but you get the idea.
Given the entertainment served up in recent times, I wouldn’t expect us to be making headline sales, but you may add a few more and it would show some engagement with the fanbase. The monthly payments scheme is a great idea but having it over 12 months is so unnecessary. August to May and you can get free entry to pre-season games. Treating the fans with a bit of common decency would be a good first step if we’re going to avoid being in a similar place to where we are now again in a year’s time.
And lastly on that, build on some of the positive work done on ticket offers in the first half of this season. First 5 games for £50 or something along those lines which may entice those not convinced enough to buying a season ticket but willing to come back and give it a go. A gamble of course as the trade-off for that to have any real benefit is a winning, or at least committed, and ideally semi-entertaining football team.
There’s a whole lot more that could be said here about the match day experience and making the whole day out more appealing, but it’s been said before and we’ve even offered to walk the walk on that ourselves on that front, so let’s stick with the basics, for now.
The Spirit of 2003
It would appear that Dean Brennan is going to be the man tasked with another re-build and after stating on more than one occasion there are players that don't want to be there (most who came in under his recruitment) it seems it’ll be a big overhaul. It's a massive task and in many ways an unenviable one, but this is where there's got to be some hope.
It wasn't quite this bleak but, in an attempt, to move towards some positivity, we're not in a totally different scenario to that of the close season in 2003. We'd just finished 11th in the Conference and felt very much like we were going nowhere, with crowds at Underhill dwindling considerably not long after almost a decade of league football. A huge overhaul of the squad took place which was only half welcome given the likes of Mark Gower and Junior Agogo moved on.
Martin Allen was the new man at the helm and full of youthful managerial exuberance. He went about assembling, as he called it, a squad of "misfits and rejects," building a siege mentality before a pre-season ball had even been kicked. It was exciting. He got to business early and through the summer we'd get announcements on the website or the back of the Barnet Press to say another player had been brought in.
For the high profile signings like Grazioli, Hendon and Plummer, there were Tony Taggarts, Mark Rooneys, Mark Williams and even a little known kid from Oxford United called Simon King. The talent varied but all the signings that year seemed to have something in common. Heart. A team was built from nothing with minimal resources and nothing like the backdrop of facilities nowadays.
And they were likeable. Even the players who didn’t necessarily have the ability had graft and work ethic that meant the fans stuck with them and believed they were giving their all, even when results didn’t go our way. How long has it been since Barnet have had a team like that?
It’s not to suggest Brennan is going to have the budget or maybe even the contacts/pulling power to attract players of the calibre of some of those from back then, but that kind of mindset and approach is key. Us against the world and we’re going to try and surprise everyone. Not “we’re in the 3rd of 4 mini divisions in this league.” If that’s the attitude of the man in charge, what’s the point in going forward?
In 2003, the club was divided, fans disengaged and the outlook was miserable. A summer of rebuilding, publicity generation and fan engagement (remember the auction for a place on the bench in the marquee friendly v Arsenal?) got the buzz back. It’s going to be an awful lot harder in the current context but the two men in charge of the club as a whole and the team on the pitch need to be going all out for something similar.
Yes, that 2003 team went on to make the play offs which is perhaps a little above what can be realistically expected of anything that’s likely to be put together this summer - although why limit ambition to just staying up again? Is that really what Barnet should be aiming for in the National League? Should anyone accept that?
There will be players out there who can do a lot more than the last two squads to generate a bit of pride, at very least, back into the club. For now, it would be something to at least put a team together that can go to the likes of Notts County or Chesterfield and at least give them a game. Small steps.
Barnet fans don’t expect a team that wins every week but a plucky side that actually cares and gives it their all. That’s what we were once seen as. That’s the Barnet many fell in love with. It’s not aspiring to much but it’s got to be at least what those hardy week in week outers deserve at the very least. Let’s at least get that bit of identity back, if nothing else.
Another interesting summer ahead…
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