By Nathan Jackson
July 21 2010

Barnet are one of those sides that everyone seems to rate as dark-horses as season and every year they don't really do anything but get midtable, at best. Last season they avoided the drop on the last day and it could easily be a case where they are struggling against the drop yet again. Barnet had a very strange season last year. They were top in September (albeit very briefly) but ended up only surviving due to results on the final day. The club barely avoided joining Kidderminster, Rushden, Boston and Chester City in being relegated in their fifth year of being in the Football League. Now they have lost arguably their best player in Adomah, whereas O'Flynn, at the time of writing, has not agreed a new contract with the club and is currently trying to win himself a deal elsewhere.

Infact, few clubs have been as busy as the Bees (pun completely intended) during the pre-season. Coming into the club has been Mark Byrne on loan from Nottingham Forest, Darren Dennehy, Charlie Simpson, Jordan Parkes, Danny Kelly, Anwar Uddin, Glenn Poole, Rossi Jarvis, Glenn Southam and Ricky Holmes. However, there have been a lot of outgoings at the club as well.

Joe Tabiri was sold to Dover Athletic, Albert Adomah left for Bristol City, whereas Ismail Yakubu, Paul Furlong, Jake Hyde, Nicky Deverdics, Daniel Leach, Albert Jarrett, Micah Hyde, Ahmed Deen, Ryan O'Neill, Kenny Gillett and Cliff Akurang, amongst others, all left Underhill via one method or another.

Barnet's season could easily depend on whether John O'Flynn decides to sign a new contract with the Bees or not. To be fair to him he tried to his luck at Bristol City, showing ambition and I don't think many Barnet fans can begrudge him wanting to try and test himself  at a higher level. However, his trial period failed to end in a contract being offered.

The striker scored 29 goals in 70 League games for the Bees over two seasons and has been linked with Gillingham, Lincoln and Shrewsbury, as well as several League One clubs, due to this form. It's obvious looking at John O'Flynn's record as to why he is a vital piece of the Barnet team. His goals secured eight points for Barnet, points they would have gone down without.

It seems almost strange that a team with a proven goalscorer at this level can struggle for most of the season. Despite playing well at Lincoln on the opening day, they failed to win either of their opening two League games before a four game winning streak saw them go top after a confident 3-1 win at Northampton. It was at this point however that they quickly started going off form.

The suddenly lost the ability to score and at one point failed to scored in five out of ten League games. They failed to win a League game from October 24^th (and that was against Darlington) up until February 6^th. They had started that run in sixth place, unbeaten at home and having only conceded four goals at Underhill. They ended that run in 18^th place and just nine points above the relegation zone.

The win on February 6^th was barely a turning point though as they only won four more times than that all season and it was a 6 game losing streak leading up to the final day that put them in danger. If they failed to beat Rochdale then it would leave the door wide open goal Grimsby, although the Mariners would have needed to either win, or draw with Barnet losing and hope for a six goal swing to stay up. It didn't really matter in the end as Barnet won 1-0 and Grimsby lost 3-0. The win even saved Barnet the title of the worst side not to go down, seeing them finish in 21^st position in the end.

Mark Stimson has now taken over as manager of Underhill and that could make for an interesting season as he has a reputation of seriously upsetting some of his squad members. David Graham and Aaron Brown both played under Stimson at Gillingham before coming to Sincil Bank and both described him as a horrible man who's more likely to fly to the moon than have a perfectly happy team.

To be honest, Barnet are one of those sides that have realistically been lucky to remain in the Football League over the years. Even some of their own fans admitted before our game at Underhill last season that if they stayed up it would be a miracle, and that it would only delay the inevitable.

I don't think Barnet are a bad side, but losing your best player and the highly likely prospect of losing your second best player, is not the best preparation for the season ahead and to be honest, I think it'll be another year of struggle for the Bees. It's nothing personal against Barnet, but they are consistently one of the poorer sides in the division and the last thing they probably need right now is a manager with a reputation for upsetting people.

Barnet swarming towards the bottom?

Discussion started by theimps.ka (IP Logged), 21/07/2010 08:36

theimps.ka
21/07/2010 08:36

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