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Top 20 Goals In 20 Years (20-11)
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Frankie's countdown from twenty to eleven...
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By:
Frankie Shank
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13/10/2009
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"The last two decades have been the most successful in the history of Barnet Football Club. Promotion to the Football League for the first time, promotion to the third tier of English football for the only time, 3 play off semi final appearances, one Conference play off appearance and a second Conference title and promotion back to the Football League following relegation. So what better way to look back on that time than by saluting some of the true legends and some not such talented players than by picking out what I consider to be the crème de la menthe of our most memorable moments.
It certainly wasnt easy picking out 20 goals and I had to leave out some great strikes and goals of great significance but after a lot of thought, here is my final list, starting at 20, to 11, for now.
20 - Peter Scott - Hull City 4-4 Barnet - 1993/94
When Peter Scott made a forward pass, Barnet fans were known to collapse in sheer disbelief. In the days before the ""Makelele role"" became fashionable, Peter Scott played the defensive midfield role in Gary Phillips and Ray Clemence's team of battlers. Short on talent but big on heart, Scott epitomised our team that season. It's fair to say that 1993/94 was not full of many memorable performances but despite that, there were still some memorable moments. One of the best was Scotts long range effort at Hull. In a topsy turvy game in which Barnet twice surrendered a two goal cushion, Scott's opportunist strike was in stark contrast to his general play. Capitalising on a mis-kicked clearance by the Hull goalkeeper, Scott proceeded to fire a pin-point lob over the stranded keeper from fully 45 yards. Given 'The Crabs' tendancy to only ever play the ball sideways or backwards, this was some strike.
19 - Frank Murphy - Barnet 3-2 Welling United - 1990/91
The diminutive Scot was a real fans favourite. More often than not coming off the bench, Murph scored some crucial goals for the Bees, none better than his fine dribble and lob in this must win game at Underhill. Gary Bull laid the ball off to Murphy inside the Barnet half and the Scot set off on the offensive. He stepped inside the first challenge and drove forward and as the Welling defence backed off he pulled a couple of cheeky stepovers out the bag before cutting inside the challenge of a defender and from just outside the box, producing a deft lob over the Welling keeper who had started to come off his line. A virtuoso goal from the moustachioed legend!
18 - Tony Richards - Wycombe Wanderers 2-1 (3-1 aet) Barnet - 2000/01
Good old Tony Richards. Never has anyone started their Barnet career so well only for it to go so badly, well apart from maybe Kelly Haag. Maybe the two of them were brothers or something?
Back in the days when the 1st Round of the League Cup used to be a two legged affair, Barnet travelled to Adams Park with a 2-1 advantage from the 1st Leg. Wycombe took the lead early on to level the tie on aggregate but Barnet soon regained their advantage. And in some style. In front of the travelling Bees fans, Richards, cool as you like, fired in a stunning lob from fully 40 yards, out of absolutely nothing. These types of strikes usually come about when the keeper has made a bit of a hash of a clearance (see goal 20) or is way off his line but not in this case. It was a truely genial strike that further enhanced Richards early season reputation as a real catch. While he turned out to be a complete donkey for whom it was an absolute scandal that we received a transfer fee for, this goal had class written all over it.
17 - Jason Puncheon - Barnet 2-1 Bradford City - 2007/08
When you play teams that are so MASSIVE that you don't even deserve to be on the same pitch as them according to all the pre-match build up, scoring a 90th minute winner with a stunning free kick is just about the perfect response to the arrogance and lack of respect shown by certain elements of the Bradford playing staff and supporters alike. Paul Fairclough liked a feisty character and Puncheon was certainly one of those. A raw talent with a raw attitude. When he was good, he was outstanding but you had to accept the downside to his character and the problems that came with it. The sulks, the petulance, the lack of effort and the ill-discipline all affected not only his career at Barnet but wherever he has played before and since. But looking back on his time at Underhill, the good times certainly stay clearer in the mind than the bad. And his winning strike against Bradford was the very best of them. In to injury time and Barnet are awarded a free kick 25 yards out on the right hand side of the box. Puncheon was always going to take this and you knew in advance that he was going to try and bend one over the wall and in at the near post. As a fan of League 2 football, you become accustomed to players lining up these free kicks week in week and then confidently striding forward and scuffing them into the wall or firing them 20 yards over the bar and Puncheon more often than not, did just that. But not this time. His shot was sheer perfection and curled high over the wall, dipping into the top corner of the net, leaving the Bradford keeper in despair and the home fans over the moon.
16 - Giuliano Grazioli - Crawley Town 1-3 Barnet - 2004/05
""WE'RE ON OUR WAY"" sang the large Barnet contingent as table topping Barnet rolled in to Crawley for what looked on paper to be a tough midweek clash. And Giuliano Grazioli's wonder strike put us well and truely on our way to another 3 points. Liam Hatch's pinpoint cross from the right touchline was met by Graz on the volley and he delicately steered a 20 yard shot into the top corner from 20 yards out, past the despairing dive of the Crawley keeper. A sublime moment of skill and a genuine touch of class from the great man.
15 - Dean Sinclair - Crawley Town 1-3 Barnet - 2004/05
Closing in on yet another away win, the 2-1 scoreline was not a fair reflection on Barnet's complete dominance of the game. A thoroughly professional performance deserved a bit of icing on the cake. The icing was to arrive in the form of box to box midfield star Dean Sinclair's right boot.
Deano's sensational 30 yard dipping volley was not only a fabulous goal but was the catalyst for a mental stack in the away end directly behind that goal.
While the goal in itself was worthy of a place in this list, the celebration and ensuing stack was certainly one of the most memorable moments of the last 10 years on what was a tremendous night for Barnet.
14 - Gary Bull - Wycombe Wanderers 1-3 Barnet - 1990/91
Bull scored so many great goals for Barnet that it is no surprise to see his name appear more than once in this list. His goal at Wycombe was a master class in the goalscoring art of movement and composure as well as being one of the most crucial goals in the clubs history. On a monsoonal Monday night, Barnet faced what appeared to be the last big test of their promotion credentials, travelling the short distance to Buckinghamshire to face Martin O'Neill's improving Wycombe side. A big crowd was in attendance for the offical opening of Wycombe's Adams Park ground, boosted by a very sizeable Barnet contingent. The Sportscast camera's were screening the game live to pubs up and down the country and Colchester fans must have been urging Wycombe to derail our promotion bandwagon. As previously mentioned, the weather really was atrocious, buckets of rain continuously poured from the heavens throughout the entire 90 minutes, but the greasy surface proved to help the Bees slick, passing football and what followed was a truely memorable performance. Within 2 minutes of the start, the late Kevin Durham played a one two with God and threaded an inch perfect through pass to Bull who timed his run across the home defence to perfection and fired a firm, first time drive into the corner of the net with the outside of his boot, leaving the keeper helpless. A goal of pure simplicity but one that showcased the skills of both Durham and Bull and set the tone for the rest of the game. Although the win at Fisher 5 days later sealed Barnet's historic promotion, many will argue (or at least I will J) that it was this 90 minute performance, kickstarted by Bull's goal, that won us the title.
13 - Simon King - Aldershot 2-3 Barnet - 2004/05
In the closing minutes of this top of the table clash, Barnet piled forward in search of a winner. A corner was half cleared and Ian Hendon launched a raking long punt from the half way line back into the box. The Aldershot keeper, under heavy pressure could only half clear with a punch and the ball bounced up at chest height just inside the Aldershot penalty area. Simon King, one of the classiest defenders to have graced the Underhill slope in recent years, didn't score many, but when he did, they were usually spectacular. King launched himself into a flying volley that flew past the stranded keeper through a crowd of defenders and hit the back of the net.
12 - Darren Currie - Barnet 7-0 Blackpool - 2000/01
Tony Cottees home debut as player-manager couldnt have started better. He opened the scoring as his new Bees team ran riot and raced into a three goal lead. With half time approaching, Barnet were awarded a free kick some 30 yards from goal to the left side of the penalty area. Confidence high, Currie strode forward and fired a right foot shot high over the wall that arrowed into the top left corner leaving the Blackpool keeper clutching at thin air. A quite majestic strike that capped a wonderful first half performance. Currie went on to complete his only career hat trick in the second half as a famous win was completed gaining revenge for our play off defeat almost a decade earlier.
11 - Gary Bull - Doncaster Rovers home - 1991/92
When Doncaster arrived at Underhill, Barnet had already plundered 22 goals in 7 games as a FL club and despite the early season thoughts that we would be a bit of a pushover, teams had quickly realised that despite being the first truly non-league team to gain promotion to the Football League, we were a force to be reckoned with. While Doncaster bucked the trend and kept the score down to just the one goal, Gary Bulls solo effort deserved to win any game. Doncaster had done their homework and played a high line in an attempt to stop Barnet breaking from deep and it had worked. But when Bull picked the ball up inside his own half and looked for a through ball only to be confronted by the entire Doncaster defence, he improvised. Shaping to play a pass, Bull threaded the ball through the defence, dodged a defender and ran clear of the entire Donny backline, latching on to his own through ball. As the keeper started to advance off his line, Bull in his typical stylish fashion, decided that taking it around him would be too easy so he nonchalantly lobbed him from fully 30 yards in front of a packed West Bank."
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