Underhill Memories

In case you missed it, I was asked to write a piece in Saturday’s commemorative programme, on Underhill memories. I didn’t want to list a number of memories, because I wanted to try and make it a decent read (as opposed to ‘this date we played this team and this happened’) so here’s my recollection of thoughts as a Bee for 19 years. Hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it.

“Is it over yet daddy? Can we go home now please?”

My first words at Underhill, as I sat in the Main Stand, nestling inside my dad’s coat, sheltering from the North London cold. Even now, aged 23, the memories come flooding back. The sights and sounds of match day: the pitch in all its sloping glory, the differing opinions of the crowd, often loudly expressed, the strange smells of football food, the sheer buzz surrounding a live game.

The real highlight back then, as a four-year-old, was the half time treat: visiting ‘Mr Nut the Nut Man’ for chocolate peanuts and raisins, served in bags that seemed like sacks to this fledgling supporter. No doubt they kept me amused while my dad tried in vain to watch the drama unfolding on the pitch.

Between then and now, nearly 20 years on, oddly some things haven’t changed at all. I’m still – more or less - in the same seat (despite a sojourn in the family stand when my dad bought season tickets for both me and my brother), surrounded by much the same people.

Many of my favourite and most vivid memories are of Underhill – great contests, players I’ve met, goals that I’ve seen. One of my earliest memories is gasping in awe at the goal celebrations of Scott McGleish - probably my first favourite all-time Bees player. I was over the moon when he returned recently. Sadly the handstands had long been consigned to the history books – a bit like Scotty’s once legendary goalscoring prowess!

Of course promotion in 2005 will stay with me forever, I was a little older then, so understood the nature of the achievement a whole lot more. While fellow fans were celebrating in the stands and on the pitch, I dribbled one of the bright orange balloons into the back of the net on the North terrace. Get in!  A special moment on a very special day indeed! As always, the tight atmosphere and intimacy of the ground amplified the excitement in a way that would have been impossible in the cavernous halls of a Wembley or similar venue.

Fast forward a couple of years to July 21^st 2007. We played Crystal Palace in a pre-season friendly. Unfortunately it is memorable for all the wrong reasons. We were late purchasing tickets, so ended up in the South Stand, back when the seats were green and the stand had no roof. Of course in typical British summer fashion, it absolutely poured down and everyone got drenched, forcing us to take shelter by the Durham Suite. Worse than that, we ended up losing the match 3-2 – I still have fond memories of the day though.

So what is it about this compact, ramshackle, seen-better-days North London footballing outpost that gets the goosebumps rising?  I guess there’s just something unique about Underhill – something that’s intensified when the floodlights are on. Even on the darkest, coldest Tuesday night, the place can seem electric. Whatever the competition, whoever the opposition, I always feel that same sense of excitement in the car journey from Brentwood – although travelling back after a defeat is never much fun! It’s that same sense of excitement I felt as a child. Nothing changes.

Suffice it to say I’ve grown up with the club, and as we prepare to move to pastures new, who knows what the future will bring. Wherever we finally end up one thing is sure; forty-odd years from now, if the old lady shuts her eyes and lets her mind wander just a little, the sound of the Dick’s dulcet tones emanating from the tannoy room, the murmur of a distant train and Guns ‘n’ Roses bellowing through the PA system will transport me back to a grassy slope in EN5. And believe me, that’s not a bad place to be...

FourFourTwo at Barnet v Aldershot

As you may or may not know, there is a feature about Barnet in this month’s FourFourTwo magazine. A couple of the guys were at the Aldershot game on New Year’s Day, with one of the writers (Nick) and a photographer. Following my previous piece I wrote for them on last season’s relegation scrap (which you can find here), I was asked to give my input again on all things Davids and how the campaign thus far was going.

I didn’t realise at the time, that there would be such a lengthy feature about us and obviously a lot of my content got cut out. I thought I’d blog my responses to the questions I was asked as well as attaching a copy from the magazine. I’ve copied and pasted it so it will be in Q&A format (although I was always taught at Uni to steer clear of that).

How did the fans feel when Davids arrived? How crazy/ unbelievable was it?

It was a strange time. A couple of weeks before, one of the youth players took to Twitter saying Davids had been spotted at The Hive (our training ground). Obviously at this point, nobody knew what he was doing there, but rumours soon spread. I think if we hadn’t known about that one incident, it would have been a massive shock, but personally I was waiting for it to be announced. I was still surprised though – especially when it was explained he’d taken up a player/manager role! I still have to pinch myself because it doesn’t seem real – a legend like that at our club!

What do you think the effect has been on the club?

Well the results have certainly improved. I think he’s been a good influence on the young players in the side as well. It must be special for them to be working alongside someone of his stature, and obviously they want to impress. It’s definitely a bit different than playing for likes of Barcelona and AC Milan. I’m not too sure what things are like behind the scenes, but I don’t think they’ve been good for a while – let’s just say that the set-up, staff-wise, doesn’t seem to the best.

Can he understand football at this level?

The results so far suggest that he is a quick learner; since his arrival, we’ve taken 20 points from 14 games compared to 3 from 11 before he joined!

How has he personally played at this level?

His debut was amazing – he lasted the whole 90 minutes against Northampton, captaining the side in the process. His passing, in particular, was incredible, as was his all-round work-rate and stamina. Not bad for a bloke of 39. All this contrasts massively with reports of his time at Crystal Palace – the last time he played competitively some two years ago! Since then, his performances have been less spectacular but nonetheless he’s still a commanding presence on the field. Needless to say, ‘The Pitbull’s’ feisty attitude has led to, er, a number of yellow cards...

What kind of football are you playing this season?

The plans pre-season were for a “total football” Barcelona-style ‘tiki-taka’ approach; in truth, we’ve seen very little of that so far, though the arrival of some experienced players from a higher level (including Davids and John Oster) have clearly raised the standard.

Has Davids had much contact/ a good rapport with the fans?

Obviously being a major star of world football, he always gets a very good reception from the fans.  When he went off injured at Exeter, even their fans applauded him as he left the pitch, which he acknowledged sportingly.

What did you think about Robson, and what do you think about his sacking?

When it was revealed that he’d be first-team coach it has to be said that the response was somewhat underwhelming. With no disrespect to Mark Robson as a person, I think a lot of people were hoping we’d get Martin Allen especially as he said he’d be up for the job himself. Robson hadn’t had experience of managing on his own, so I think he needed support from the start. It’s a results-driven business and without a win in our first 11 league matches, it was hardly an auspicious start to his managerial career. Things noticeably picked up when Davids joined as Head Coach, but the concept of two men in charge is notoriously fraught with difficulty, particularly given Davids’ experience and ambition. Something had to give. Hopefully Robson will enjoy success at a future club.

Was he unlucky? Was the situation untenable as soon as Davids arrived?

It could be argued that many clubs would not have given a new manager 12 games in charge, particularly after such a dreadful start. At this point in the season, the team weren’t even gelling particularly well either – it wasn’t even a case of us being unlucky or suffering narrow defeats. We were, quite frankly, hopeless. The arrival of ED clearly created new tensions but ultimately, Robson appeared popular with the playing staff, hence the number of sympathetic tweets from players when news broke of his departure.

Do you think you'll stay up, or will it be another nerve-shredder?

Going into the New Year, we were the ninth-best team form-wise over the past 11 games and enjoyed the best Christmas in League Two with seven points from nine. Based on that form, the possibility of new signings and a number of players coming back from injury, we have the potential to avoid our final day dice with the drop – and even aspire to mid-table mediocrity. The current form of the teams around us down in the depths also gives genuine cause for optimism.

How do you see the future for Barnet?

So much hinges on our plans for the new stadium, The Hive and whether Davids stays or tires of the ordeals of League Two. Even Nostradamus would have trouble predicting the future. Having followed the Bees for 19 years, I can safely say that the next few years will not be boring!

Is Davids a flash in the pan or a sign that the club have big ambitions? Is your chairman particularly ambitious?

The concern with having someone of Davids’ cachet at the club is that he could quickly become bored with the rough and tumble of League Two and seek new challenges. At the moment though his commitment seems genuine enough and there have been odd comments in interviews where he has spoken about long-term plans and the squad for next season. Personally, I think it would be wrong for us Bees fans to get too far ahead of ourselves though as experience shows the club tends to disappoint. Our chairman, Tony Kleanthous, has been accused in the past of lacking ambition (i.e. not spending money) but his stewardship of the Hive project and continued search for a new stadium would suggest otherwise. The signing of players like Collins John, John Oster and Davids himself also indicate that his plans are indeed forward-looking, if not unsustainably so.

Life = made

As an avid reader of Four Four Two, I was pleasantly surprised when one of their team tweeted me asking if they could speak to me about our final game (and survival in the Football League) away at Burton at the end of last season. Of course, my answer was “yes”. Apparently, they had been following my tweets from the day and had staff at the Hereford/Torquay match – and were looking to speak with a Barnet fan to get their side of events. I jumped at the chance and after a number of emails were exchanged, I was told to look out for the July edition. For those of you that haven’t seen it:

 “I was worried about the game all week. The more I thought about it, the worse I pictured the outcome. I felt sick first thing, but on the journey up to Burton, everyone seemed pretty upbeat. Most of them believed we’d stay up. We’ve done it on the last day of the last two seasons – we’re survival specialists!

When we scored early, I thought: “this is our day”. But we were in shock when we heard that Hereford were three up. Then Burton got one back and a draw wasn’t enough for us. As Zola stepped up to that penalty, I thought we were doomed. My heart was in my mouth. But he skied it. That shot saved our season.

At half time, someone said to me “Hereford could win 27-0 – but we could get a late winner and stay up”. Everyone was still strangely confident. It got a bit mental: at one point, a rumour spread that it was 3-3 at Edgar Street. But then we scored the second. The celebrations were crazy. Everyone was chanting Mark Hughes’ name and bundling.

We held on well and Dean Brill made a blinding save in the final seconds. Our 992 fans – a huge following by our standards – went mad at the end. Who’d have predicted both teams winning their game? We chanted ‘we are Barnet, we’ll never go down’ for about 20 minutes. The players came to celebrate with us, and everyone was elated. I didn’t celebrate that much afterwards – just a couple of drinks. I felt relief more than anything. Every year, so many people write us off, and every year we somehow manage to survive.

I just hope it doesn’t happen for a fourth season running. I don’t think we could go through it all again.”

Pre-Dagenham thoughts (20.03.12)

Following on from the Look Black n Amber exclusive earlier in the week, here’s the next piece from my portfolio, found in the Matchday Programme on Tuesday night. The opponents: Dagenham + Redbridge.

“Good evening.

Saturday’s game against Morecambe was a real game of two halves. At the end of the match we were very disappointed to come away with nothing. First half playing down the slope I thought we really took the game to them; we passed it around well and created enough chances to have it wrapped up by half time. As is the case at the moment, it only took Morecambe one opportunity to score at the end of the first 45 minutes. From our point of view, it was another sloppy goal to give away, and at the end of the day, that one mistake really cost us.

From going goals behind in the past, we’ve had the ability to turn it around and when you have attacking players of our quality, there is always a threat there. When Morecambe got their second though, it was simply a case of game over. At full time we were all aware that our second half performance wasn’t good enough – despite Morecambe defending well, we were too flat – and we simply can’t be making those kind of errors anymore. We now need to put that match behind us and move forward and what better opportunity than in front of the home crowd tonight in a six pointer against Dagenham and Redbridge.

Six of our final nine games including tonight are at home, and despite our away performances being better this season, we need to somehow turn that around and give our fans something to shout about at Underhill. We all know we need to make home advantage count, as every point at this stage of the season is vital. We went out with that mindset on Saturday and weren’t able to deliver the goods, so tonight is a good opportunity to put things right. I can’t put my finger on why our away performances have been better, but it started back earlier in the season with our cup runs. The fact is, we do need to do better at home, and like I said, what better time than tonight – at this stage of the season, one good result can turn our luck around and with the fans behind us, we can gain momentum.

As I’ve said in previous notes, playing well for 45 minutes doesn’t count for anything when we leave games without a point; we need to start playing consistently well for the entire match, take our chances and ultimately cut out any silly mistakes, particularly when defending.

Our next two games are huge: tonight against Dagenham and then Macclesfield away on Friday night. Depending how we fare points-wise at the end of the week, it’s fair to say those results alone will either make it a lot easier or a lot more difficult in terms of our scrap down the bottom. Our situation at present is a lot better than it was earlier in the season – we’ve not been in the bottom two for a while, and there are a lot more teams struggling this year. That alone gives us the confidence to press on, and with such a young side, we know we really need to push away from the wrong end of the table. We need to be the top side in the bottom six or seven – it’s almost like a mini-league down there!

We’re expecting a tough test tonight from Dagenham, because of course they are down there too, and scrapping for their lives. They won at the weekend, so I’m sure that’ll give them confidence going into tonight’s game. We have to not let that bother us, and although it’s bound to be a scrappy and hard-fought game, we have to go into it with a positive attitude. We have a new threat in Ben up front and I’m sure they’ll be aware of him and his presence. He’s another option for us – on Saturday he showed how good he is in the air. Going forward we look dangerous, so really need to cause problems for the Dagenham defenders, but of course it will be a case of taking chances.

I’m aware at the moment that the fans come away from games as disappointed as us players, but we really need everyone to get behind us. We know we aren’t the worst, or even second worst side in the League and we can get out of it again – with the support of everyone at the ground. I’ve said it before, but the positivity and support during the game really do affect the lads on the pitch and can make all the difference so please continue to back us. By sticking together, we will turn it around, beginning tonight, which is a massive game for everybody concerned.

Enjoy the game”

Mark Hughes was talking to Lucy Waldon

Pre-Morecambe thoughts (17.03.12)

So for those of you that don’t know, from time to time I get the opportunity to interview the Barnet captain to get his thoughts leading up to our next home game. It’s been a great chance to showcase some of the skills I learnt whilst studying for a journalism degree, as well as doing something that not only interests me, but is also a passion of mine. I started helping out last season, when our captain was Glen Southam. This season, our captain is Mark Hughes. Here is my first instalment for Look Black n Amber – seen in the match day programme for the Morecambe game last Saturday.

"It seems a while since we played Rotherham at home, with a couple of away games in the meantime. I thought we started that game well, creating chances and we got the early goal through Byrner. At the end of the first half though, having such a narrow lead always means you’re prone to throw that away, and had we been further ahead at the break, I think we would have got all three points. With Ricky and Izale in the side, always going forward, we had a fair few opportunities to extend our lead. As it was, Rotherham had a good spell in the second half, getting that equalising goal, and once we got reduced to ten men the game clearly swung in their favour. It was definitely a game of two halves. At the end of it though, I think we were all happy to get a point – they put us under the cosh a fair bit – but I think we played well with a man down, especially given the way we capitulated against Bradford previously.

We went into the Gillingham game the following Tuesday feeling positive and confident. Again, I believe we started well and created chances – when you have players of our quality going forward, you’re always more than capable of getting goals! Again we went into the break with a narrow one-goal lead, despite having chances to kill the game off before half time. Gillingham are a good side going forward, and there always seems to be a hatful of goals in their games. Once they got their equaliser quickly in the second half, we flapped a bit. Our heads didn’t drop when they got their second, but after scoring a third in quick succession it was definitely game over! Like the rest of the squad, I was frustrated at the end of the game because we hadn’t played badly, in fact I think it was one of our better performances of late – the scoreline definitely didn’t reflect the way we played!

We went into Saturday’s game against Port Vale knowing we needed to forget about the defeat at Priestfield, and if we played half as well as that, would be likely to get a result. We hadn’t been in good form, so to win our first game since the end of January was such a relief, and a real confidence boost for the boys! It’s always nice to score a winner in the final minutes of a match, and given the manner we have been conceding recently, it was good to finally have that little bit of luck. Ben scored on his debut, but I’d like to say congratulations to Andy for getting his first goal for the club – he came off the bench and was in the right place at the right time, with his first touch of the game! Hopefully now they’ll both get a couple more goals as well.

With Ben in the side now, and a couple of the youngsters coming off the bench, there is definitely competition in the side for places. We didn’t know until Friday that Ben was joining us – I’m not sure how long he’d known either. He was on the bench on Wednesday for Stevenage, so it was a case of White Hart Lane to Vale Park in four days. But we were all delighted he managed to get on the score sheet in his first game, and I’m sure he was as well – particularly on his birthday! He just wants to get the opportunity to play first team football.

We are expecting a test today against Morecambe; they’re a big, strong side with tonnes of experience, whereas we are a much younger side with players wanting to prove themselves. That doesn’t make them better than us though. We won 1-0 in the reverse fixture so I’m sure they’ll be looking to put one over on us this afternoon. Hopefully Pricey doesn’t cause us too many problems after Obita scored for Gillingham in that midweek game, although he’ll be wanting to show what the club missed out on! Going into games, we always look at how we fared in the previous match, so to win and ‘do the double’ over Morecambe would be very pleasing. A win would see us hit the 40 point marker, which would also drag a couple of teams back into the scrap again.

Enjoy the game"

Mark Hughes was talking to Lucy Waldon