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Community
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Real Football. Real Fans.
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26/07/2026
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This article has been viewed 10 times.
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by Max Bygraves
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It’s not quite yet, ‘here we go again’ time but having ventured to The Hive twice in the past week, it felt like an appropriate time to shift the close season dust from the Downhill Second Half typewriter.
We’ve been a little quiet over this summer. In early May, there were several WhatsApps exchanged with ideas for content yet none of it quite materialised. The two of us running this operation do so juggling young families and busy jobs - over this last little period something has had to give. Normal service will be resumed once the season is up and running again. Our other halves will be delighted.
A World Cup summer always fills the no Barnet void somewhat - although how nice it’ll be to get back to watching football in halves rather than quarters and without VAR or extended half times for questionable entertainment. Can you imagine a Barnet half time show? I just did a little chuckle out loud at the imagined visual of that. Feel free to throw some ideas our way for what it could entail or who might feature.
I’m not a great lover of pre-season friendlies. This hasn’t always been the case. I remember as a teenager, in my mind, these fixtures held the same amount of significance as any other. I distinctly remember over-exuberantly celebrating a penalty in a friendly at Underhill against Luton in 2002. I think it made the game 1-1. It was a turning point of sorts as some bloke behind me pointed out the total irrelevance of it all once I’d calmed down. Pretty sure I was on the North West Terrace for that as I used to use friendlies as an excuse to watch the games from different vantage points. Look at all the fun I was having. An apt location for someone to bring you down to reality with their half empty cup. Blimey, I miss Underhill.
Luton in a friendly a few years before that was actually my first ever Barnet game. A Friday night with my Dad on the final day of the school year in 1999. Barnet won 1-0 but I don’t recall much excitement. We sat in the family stand and my abiding memory is watching the tube trains rattle over the bridge in the far corner of the ground. So given this, it felt about right last weekend, at the start of this year’s school summer holidays, to have a nosey at the latest pre-season edition of Barnet v Luton now with my own son in tow.
I’m not sure how to describe it other than the ‘football switch’ has seemingly been flicked on for him at a very early age in the past few months. There has of course been significant encouragement but it was great to see a lot of enthusiasm to attend a game on the back of a summer of World Cup fever. For a friendly, it was a decent enough spectacle. Granted, our two dad and lad combinations on our row for the afternoon did spend at least half of the second half sorting out Panini Sticker swaps rather than concentrating on the action. But it’s all football.
A nice way to ease back in, complete with a bit of autograph hunting at full time. Nile Ranger appearing as a second half trialist on the back of spells at Wellingborough Town and Chatham last season was a bit odd. Surely that one isn’t going anywhere? He’s been around the club training on and off for a while. All a bit strange, given his more than chequered history.
Now you could point to the line: “I’m not a great lover of pre-season friendlies,” and say, well why were you at two in a week, then? Fair but the Oxford game was long in the calendar due to it being the Community Day. I thought last year’s event on a Sunday was pretty good although the adding of a match to maybe entice a few back again seemed a sensible idea.
I’ve got lots of very good things I’m about to say, I promise, but I am going to start with a gripe before the day began. Why did we not market this properly?! An excellent event was set up but unless you were already a Barnet fan and aware of the goings on at the club, how would you know about it? There was a mention of the date via an Instagram post back in May. The next proper update came on the Friday morning, 24 hours before the event.
Maybe I’ve got this wrong, but we should have been plugging this for weeks. To the point where it got annoying for those of us involved anyway. We are not the target!
It could be the case perhaps that Harrow schools were targeted, I don’t know. As someone who works in education in Barnet and has established good links with the club with the organisations I’m involved with, absolutely nothing came our way to promote it. I saw some flyers in the club shop last weekend, why were these not distributed into the wider community to pick up new people? It feels like a bit of an opportunity missed given the obvious time and effort that went into it.
Because from the perspective of a parent taking two kids along, I have to say I thought the offer we put on was absolutely outstanding. A £10 community day pass got each of my children the following:
- a match ticket
- chicken and chips lunch with a drink
- face painting (big hit!)
- unlimited goes on inflatables
- football on the astro pitch
- an ice lolly
- a Barnet flag
- a goodie bag with a mug, pen and autograph book
They were buzzing. This is how you get kids hooked. Go beyond the football, make it magic for them, give them the odd bit of low cost stuff that feels really exciting for them to pull out of a plastic bag!
I’ve been sharing that list above widely with friends who support other teams to highlight just how much of a brilliant community offer this was. A full day out in the summer holidays at a cost of £20 for two kids is not easy to come by. It’s impossible in fact! A massive well done to those who organised the day and structured it as they did. I can’t think of anything I’ve seen us do before to match it.
Contrastingly, a few weeks ago for Father’s Day I took my Dad and the kids to The Emirates for a stadium tour. I’ve not hidden family ties to that club before and after such a long time, there was quite a lot of excitement within the family to see a particular trophy on show. On top of the not inexpensive tour tickets, Arsenal wanted £20 for one photo of you with the Premier League trophy. If you didn’t want to pay that? No photo with the trophy.
Absolutely scandalous behaviour but only highlights further what a force for good clubs like ours can do with events like this to attract kids to proper football. When I started coming to Barnet, we had advertising boards around the pitch that said: Real Football, Real Fans. Not sure why they ever went away. As the chasm between TV football and our level only widens, it’s so important we create opportunities for kids to make the connections and memories they can at Barnet which they won’t find elsewhere. Let’s hope we kick on and continue to add things to matchdays of this kind of ilk.
There has been a lot discussed online about the recent re-branding of the Hive bar and the Wing Kingz takeover of the catering of the site. I won’t dwell too much on the issue of one of the murals initially painted in there. I’m glad to hear and see today it has been removed. Common sense. There are thousands of options if you want to choose famous sporting faces, surely a bit of consideration over individual’s records happens before someone is let loose with a spray can? Let’s take the positive that it’s been reflected upon and changed.
Going for a ‘bite to eat’ at the game has never really been something that has featured in my pre-match ritual. The offer of the kids sampling it for free was a good excuse to check it out. My summary would be that they have got some quite significant work to do to get it right between now and when the proper matches start. I don’t envisage myself rushing back for Saturday lunchtime chicken anytime soon - but I hope it can be a success and is well used by those that are inclined to. From the snaking queues behind Legends’, the snack bar also needs a bit of bedding in time. Haven’t tried the bars yet in these visits, let’s hope for positive change there as the new season begins...
I’ve got very little to say on the game against Oxford. I saw their early goal. I thought we played alright for the first half. There’s a few players I quite like the look of but I’m not going to profess any expertise at this stage. My daughter had been a bit under the weather this week and at half time, asked if we could go home. We’d done a fair stint with all the pre match stuff, in any case. We heard the cheer for Senior’s goal as we approached the exit gate to Camrose Avenue.
To round off on Community Day, there were some Barnet Councillors present at the event before the game. Over the summer, the local elections have shifted the landscape a little back in our home borough. There was a slightly disappointing, almost flippant, remark from the chairman in an interview in May regarding the likelihood of the move home now. I can see why this would make many switch off and maybe resign themselves to a future in Harrow. Please don’t. There is a lot of work going on behind the scenes and still a lot of will and belief that it can be done.
In a few months time, we’ll have our first ever visit to the new Plough Lane to face AFC Wimbledon in the Paint Pot Pizza Windscreen Cup. They left the original ground in 1991 and after a hell of a lot more drama than us, returned in 2020. There are differences, of course, but unwavering devotion, hope and commitment to making it happen got them there. Look at the Brighton story, if you want another example. We’ve had setbacks, we face challenges, but we very much can Bring Barnet Back - please continue to show your support for this!
Finally, it would be remiss of me not to end this by mentioning the sadly recently departed John Clayton. John was known to many Barnet fans for his fantastic work in the late 80s and early 90s putting together the much loved Clayton & Clayton videos. Many of these can be found on YouTube, documenting an amazing era in our history.
To the two of us, John has been like a family member for the past twenty or so years as the father of one of our best mates. We’ve spent Christmas days in his company and have many other fantastic memories. His summer parties were legendary. May he rest in peace.
John’s funeral is taking place this coming Friday - if you’re reading this as someone who knew him but don’t have the details, please drop us a message. The dress code is Barnet shirts.
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