A bit of much needed excitement...

Earlier this week saw (possibly) the most exciting day of the close season - fixture release. If you were to say you weren't looking forward to it or don't really care, you'd be lying. "You play both teams twice, once home and once away" is probably the worst thing I've heard someone say - it's a lot more exciting than that! It's the opportunity to get your calendar out and start marking when you'll be busy, looking at train websites in advance to see how much it's going to set you back, seeing where you'll start and end the campaign and the first chance to see when you'll be facing your rivals. Amidst all the excitement comes the "oh no, we've got to travel x miles on a Tuesday night", as well as knowing those fixtures aren't set in stone, and the chances are at least half of your games will get re-arranged for whatever reason! But of course, there are always those certain dates and grounds you look out for, and always check first, for whatever reason.

After finding out we play Birmingham City away in the first round of the League Cup, I don't think the League fixtures have really disappointed - with two of our three matches in August at Underhill. Barnet begin and finish the season like this:

Opening three games:

18.08.12 Port Vale (a)

 21.08.12 Bristol Rovers (h)

 25.08.12 York City (h)

 Closing three games:

13.04.13 Torquay United (a)

20.04.13 Wycombe Wanderers (h)

27.04.13 Northampton Town (a)

The next fixtures I always look out for are Boxing Day and New Years Day. The last few years we've struck it lucky with the former with local matches against Dagenham + Redbridge and games at Underhill. This coming season we play Gillingham away on Boxing Day (hardly appealing!) and Aldershot at home on New Years.

Like most fans, the final date I look out for is the weekend of my birthday - largely in the hope it'll be a decent away trip somewhere an enjoyable couple of days can take place. With my next birthday being slap bang in the middle of the week, I had two potential matches to look forward to. Saturday 12th January sees us travel to Rotherham and their new ground, whilst the 19th is a home game against new boys, Fleetwood Town. Although I will, most likely, attend both games, neither really excite!

Then there's the matter of those local games and grounds you look forward to visiting. Living in Brentwood, I look out for Southend (6th October) and Dagenham + Redbridge (15th December). The only disappointment for me is the season-long wait for our visit to Northampton and Sixfields - possibly my favourite away ground/day of all time. Although, I guess it means it gives me the good part of a year to get some funds together and absolutely rinse TGI's of cocktails!

Every year I always make a list of 'new grounds', mainly from those promoted and relegated and the season doesn't disappoint. This coming season I have all six to visit; although, in fairness, I'll probably make half, if that!

To visit:

Rochdale - September 1st

Fleetwood Town - September 29th

Wycombe Wanderers - October 23rd

Chesterfield - October 27th

Exeter City - December 29th

York City - February 16th

Roll on August!

Oh, and you can check out the seasons fixtures here.

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.”

#paninidoubles

So in my entry yesterday, I mentioned I was one of those geeks collecting the stickers. I thought I’d better join the ‘doubles club’. I’ll try and keep this updated as much as possible!

Need

Contents

PSS        1        2        3        5

Venues and Stadiums

7        13        14        15        16        19        22        24        26        29

Countries

31        33        34        35        36        37        38        41        42        45

Poland

49        51        53        56        58        61        62        63        64        65        66        67        68        69        71        74        76        77

Greece

79        80        81        82        84        87        90        93        98        101     102     104     105

Russia

107     108     109     116     118     120     121     123     124     127     128     129     132     134     135

Czech Republic

137     140     142     143     144    151     152     155     156     163

Holland

165     168     174     175     178     179     180     182     185     186     193

Denmark

195     197     198     200     201     204     205     206     207     208     210     214     216     219     221     222

Germany

224     225     228     229     231     232     233     237     238     241     242     244     246     250

Portugal

254     255     259     261     262     263     265     269     272     274     276     278     279

Spain

281     282     284     287     288     291     293     294     297     298     301     306     307     308

Italy

312     313     314     316     318     320     321     322     323     324     330     332     335     338

Ireland

339     340     341     342     344     345     348     350     352     353     357     360     364     365     366     367

Croatia

373     375     376     379     380     381     384     385     386     388     394     395

Ukraine

397     399     400     402     403     407     408     412     414     415     418     419     422     423     425

Sweden

426     428     430     431     432     437     440     447     452     453     454

France

456     457     458     459     461     465     471     473     477

England

486     488     490     491     492     495     496     499     500     503     505     509     512

History

514     515     517     519     520     522     524     526     527     528    529     530     532     533     537     538

Swaps

10        28        94        95        97        115     119     125     130     130     131     138     139     146     188     209     209     260     270     285     304     325     326     334     334     354     356     359     362     370     393     401     444     460     466     467     469     480     482     498     506     507     510     534     535

Something to look forward to…

With the Football League season well and truly over after last weekend’s League One and League Two playoff finals at Wembley, it seems like such a long time until football returns. It is in fact only a week away, with the Euro 2012 competition commencing next Friday. The most exciting part of that for me is this:

Yes, I am one of those sad geeks over the age of 21 collecting.

I am also a part of that minority that cannot get excited over the national side and England’s chances. I don’t think I can even explain why, I’ve always felt that way. I will never understand why people get so overly optimistic, they must know themselves they sound stupid saying really out-there statements like “England will win the Euros”. Let’s all be honest, they won’t.

I’m not a pessimist, I’m just a realist.

I mean, I support Barnet. I know they aren’t very good; I’ve never for one moment pretended they are. Every year we scrape relegation on the final day. Every year I predict a lower half finish. It’s just how we are. I’d be kidding myself if I said we’d get promotion, make the playoffs, even finish top 10. It just wouldn’t happen – although would be a lovely surprise (and somewhat, a miracle) if we were. So why is supporting England the same? You get those people who get outrageously ahead of themselves, like the national side is some kind of super team, it’s just average. I know my opinions on the matter are unpopular, but it’s true.

I can’t even get excited over England games the way I do about Barnet either. I watched that friendly last weekend in silence – I didn’t really have anything to say on the matter. I didn’t cheer when the goal went in, I didn’t moan about substitutions or anything. But then again, watching England in a friendly, is like watching your club team pre-season. I can’t get excited about pre-season friendlies either; even if it’s against the likes of Arsenal ‘reserves’ and even more so, when you’re playing a team at least five divisions below you.

I sometimes think maybe this lack of enthusiasm is down to not watching an international match live. But on the other hand, I really don’t think it’d appeal to me. I think watching an international game at a stadium would have the same impact as that poor girl who knows nothing about football who gets dragged to football by her obsessed boyfriend! And don’t even get me started on the people who take time off work to watch England matches, or phone in sick the next day when they’ve had too much to drink. I’d much rather be earning money!

Now don’t get me wrong, I watch the tournaments and enjoy watching them – but that isn’t because of England, it’s to be entertained by some of the best footballers in the world, and to see who can cause the biggest shock. That underdog country that springs a surprise on the rest of the competition makes it all that more watchable; like Greece in 2004, defying the odds.

Group B, tipped this year’s ‘group of death’ looks the most interesting. Denmark, Germany, Holland and Portugal. Trying to vie for the two quarter final places will be interesting. If you look back to qualifying, Germany won all 10 of their games and only conceded seven goals. Denmark finished top of their group, ahead of Portugal who had to go into playoff against Bosnia and Herzegovina. Holland also finished top of their group, scoring more goals than Germany, but losing a match.

And of course, midway through the competition, the Football League fixtures are announced – June 18^th at 9am. The League Cup draw is often the day before. At least then we can start to plan our first away trips, and who we will be travelling to on that dreaded Tuesday night.

I shouldn’t really complain, all in all, it’s a pretty good summer of football, right?

Who stays and who goes..?

It’s the biggest day of the close season, aside from the fixture release, for both players and fans alike – the day of the retained and released list. For Barnet though, it seemed a little strange, obviously still with no manager in place. The decision to oversee matters was left with Paul Fairclough. With no real news of note the last couple of weeks on the club’s official website, it was refreshing to finally see something of such importance. Like any other club, rumours circulated on Twitter, before the club announced who was staying and who was going. Prior to the story online, Sam Cox tweeted: “Just received a letter… didn’t take a rocket scientist to know that was coming!!!”, and later on today went on to say: “Unfortunately got the news that I won't be at Barnet FC next season...Firstly I want to just thank all the fans for always supporting me... & believing me throughout my 2 year period at the club...It's unfortunate I never really got a decent run in the side but I can say that... I gave 100% every time I stepped on the pitch/training field...I'm happy to say that during my time I made some gd friendships on and off” (@TheSamCox).

It wasn’t only Barnet players tweeting – the Gillingham players released only found out via Twitter that their services were no longer required. Former Bee, Simon King tweeted: “disappointed to find out on Twitter that I had been released, but I don’t want that to leave a sour not for me ‘cause I have had a quality time at the Gills and met some lifelong friends” as well as “obviously very disappointed to b leaving, felt I was over my injury nightmare and thought I still had a lot to give” (@s_kingy05). Injury or not, I’d love to see Kingy back at Underhill. Other than the defenders we’ve had on loan – the likes of Hector and Saville – I believe since his departure, the defence has really been lacking, and we need a player like him. I always thought he was a great defender that deserved to be playing higher, but the injuries have certainly hindered this. I say sign him up – everyone would welcome him back with open arms!

Now onto our retained and released list. Firstly it’s goodbye to the following: Dean Brill, Sam Cox, Darren Dennehy, Mark Marshall, Izale McLeod, Alassane N’Diaye, and Jordan Parkes.

A lot of the names on that list will come as no real surprise to some. Parkes, despite having a decent first season with the club (after a successful loan spell in 2008), barely featured last season, also having an unsuccessful loan spell at Farnborough Town. It is a shame it didn’t work out for him, because there was a lot of promise when he joined from Watford – over the two years he found himself drop in the pecking order, and when the loanees joined, it was obvious he would have no real future.

N’Diaye, too, didn’t feature an awful lot for the first team, despite coming off the bench on numerous occasions. I didn’t personally rate him; he didn’t really add much to the team, and the fact that fans from his previous clubs have said a similar thing, speaks volumes.

With the FA finally giving the verdict on the Mark Marshall drug case and banning him from all competitive football for two years, it was no surprise to anyone that the club have terminated his contract – not much else to say on that matter!

Dennehy, too, has seen most of last season from the sidelines with injury. He also missed most of the previous season, after retaining a foot injury, back in Septemeber 2010. He made his comeback against Colchester in the JPT, but was soon ruled out again. Injury aside, he was a decent defender, and Gillingham (where he spent a period on-loan) fans sing his praises. It will be interesting to see where he ends up, and hopefully can stay injury-free. Like a couple of the others, he took to Twitter, tweeting: “Would like to thank my boys at Barnet Fc for ther friendships the past couple seasons, thank the fans for there support even thou I was injured and couldn't perform every week, hopefully my boys will do well for ye next season..! Pre season at another club will feel strange but hopefully return to play against my friends soon.. :) #bees #friendship” (@DDennehy5)

Finally to McLeod – everyone knew he would be leaving at the end of the season. Fans from other clubs seem so shocked that we’ve let him go, what with being joint-top scorer for League Two, but it was plain to see his mind’s been elsewhere – ever since the January transfer window. He wasn’t the same player he was in the first half of the season, and after the speculation of “will he, won’t he” the goals dried up and his performances dramatically changed. Although it is plain to see he is a natural goal scorer, his ‘bigger than the club’ attitude and ego didn’t do much to win him over with fans. At the same time, wherever he ends up, he will continue to be a success. The club didn’t sell him in January, obviously because they wanted to retain his services for the rest of the season, but in the end, we didn’t really need him – with the likes of Holmes, May, Hughes etc…

I was shocked, however, to see Brill released. He wasn’t a bad keeper at all, and I’d have him as my first choice over the likes of O’Brien all day long. In my opinion the first job of the manager, when he is decided upon, is to find a first choice keeper – somebody with League experience at our level, and of a decent calibre.

Now onto the players we’ve managed to keep hold of: Mark Byrne, Ricky Holmes, Elliot Johnson, Steve Kabba, Clovis Kamdjo, Liam O’Brien, Mauro Vilhete and Andy Yiadom.

The pick of the bunch there, for me, obviously has to be Byrne and Holmes. I’m also oddly happy to see Kamdjo sign on for another year. For me, he has to be the most improved player of last season – his new role in the centre of midfield suits his own skills and attributes better. Kabba too, has clearly been a great influence on the younger squad members because of his experience, and despite not playing because of injury, he deserves to stay. Hopefully next season will see him back in an amber shirt, and he can remain injury free. The younger players constantly sing his praises; Sam Cox, in particular, never has a bad word to say about him.

Three players are still undergoing contract negotiations: Sam Deering, Mark Hughes and Jack Saville. The sooner all three can put pen to paper, the better. All three are big players that were crucial on survival last season. The official site states: “the future of Mark will lie in the hands of our new manager. The future of Sam is dependent on talks with Sam and his agent”.

With that first bit of news out of the way, I’m hoping the three that haven’t yet committed their futures to the club, do so. The next bit of news really needs to be the decision of the manager, as once that has cleared up we can get on signing new players ready for pre-season.

Match Report: Burton Albion 1–2 Barnet
(Barnet Fan’s Perspective)

The final day of the 2011/12 season and for the third consecutive campaign, Barnet’s fate was yet again, going down the wire. As the Bees travelled to Burton Albion, only two points separated them and Hereford (who were at home to Torquay) and really, anything less than three points would not be good enough. With McLeod on the bench (not fit enough to start the game), Scott McGleish partnered Ben May up front.

It was the home side that started the brighter and a mistake from Jack Saville in the heart of the Bees’ defence gifted an early opportunity to Calvin Zola. Dean Brill, at the second time of asking, saved his volley.

Any pre-match or early nerves from the visiting side were soon deterred with the opening goal coming after just six minutes. A free kick from 25 yards out, taken by Mark Byrne, got a wicked deflection in the Burton wall and wrong-footed Ross Atkins in the Brewers’ net.

Burton Albion 0–1 Barnet (Byrne ’6)

But instead of building on that lead, the visitors had a job of defending their one-goal advantage. Burton had a number of chances – first, Jack Dyer on the quarter of an hour mark, hit high over the bar; before Andy Corbett delivered a delightful cross and any touch from an Albion player would have resulted in a goal; however it deflected out of the area by a Barnet leg. Burton’s player of the season, Zola, then had a golden opportunity to level the scores – but for a great save from Brill between the Barnet sticks. An equaliser was coming, with the ball largely in the Barnet half and it came just before half an hour on the clock, through Jacques Maghoma.

Burton Albion 1–1 Barnet (Maghoma ’27)

As things stood, a point was not good enough – news from Edgar Street soon flooded around the ground, Hereford were winning 3–0. Just before half time, the turning point came… Corbett’s cross was missed by Clovis Kamdjo, who was back in the centre of defence, and Zola, the intended recipient of the cross, was bundled over tamely by Byrne; a penalty was awarded. After some arguing amongst the Albion players, Zola stepped up to take it – and skied it right over the bar!

1–1 at half time, and as things stood, Hereford and Barnet would swap places – a point not good enough.

For the second period, McLeod replaced McGleish up front and with 45 minutes to preserve their League status, the players looked a lot more determined, attacking from the off.

May had a shot early on, only managing the side netting, before Sam Deering really should have done better from six yards out – missing the follow-up, after another shot from May was cleared off the line. Barnet could have definitely felt aggrieved not to be awarded a penalty soon after – Deering the victim, shoulder barged to the floor by Nathan Stanton. “In desperation, they’d shout for anything” seemed a little harsh from the Brewers’ commentary team!

The pressure continued to pile on Burton’s defence and it paid off on the hour mark: a tricky run from Ricky Holmes allowed him into a crossing position, and when the ball was cleared to the edge of the penalty else, who else but ‘Captain Fantastic’ – Mark Hughes with what was a crucial winner, an excellent volley. A worthy winner if ever one was seen and cue jubilation from the away terrace. With half an hour to, the Bees were keeping their place in the Football League.

Burton Albion 1–2 Barnet (Hughes ’60)

Minutes later it emerged that Torquay had pulled two goals back at Edgar Street, although several cruel individuals started rumours of a 3–3 draw – and with that, the away end was rocking.

The game could have easily been put to bed, had McLeod remembered his shooting boots. But the last opportunity fell to home side – three consecutive corners late on, and the Barnet defence needed to remain resilient and fully concentrate on the task in hand. The first two corners were easily cleared by the defence, but the third required an absolute wonder safe from Brill, as he denied Patrick Ada – and Burton of an equalising goal.

And with that, the final whistle was blown and once again, the Bees had managed the ‘Great Escape’.

It was quite an afternoon with so many emotions felt in such a short space of time. The scenes at the end of the match were something else, with elation shared by players, staff and fans alike.

And so, our next League fixture, will be a Football League fixture!

Attendance: 3359 (away 992)

My away day experience: Burton Albion

So it was the final day of the 2011-12 campaign and with our League status still firmly in the balance, why the hell wouldn’t I be going to Burton Albion to see if we could manage the ‘great escape’ for a third consecutive season? I had never been to the Pirelli, so it was also another ground to tick off – but, let’s be honest, there was no way I missing this one! And how glad am I that I didn’t?

8:30am – despite setting my alarm for 8:50 with the appropriate title ‘Survival Saturday – foooootbaaaawll’, I woke up earlier; largely down to the fact I couldn’t sleep due to a mixture of nerves and excitement! I had been awake previously at around 6, when I felt sick – it felt as if all my insides were in my mouth! On one hand, I was absolutely buzzing for the day ahead, but a part of me also felt anxious. I got ready, making sure my bag was packed and I had enough money and all of my train tickets – six of them – before having beans on toast, for breakfast.

9:50 am – I left home for Shenfield station, my mum (again!) being the one up early to drop me off. I had to collect my ticket across London beforehand, as I had pre-booked it, but there was no chance of me paying an extra £4.95 to have it posted (are the rail company having a laugh!?). With trains running regularly to Liverpool Street, I didn’t have long to wait before catching the train.

10:08 am – after missing one train by a matter of seconds, I caught the fast train, which only stopped at Stratford. I made quite good timing, arriving at Liverpool Street within 25 minutes or so. Although the train itself wasn’t that busy, and most people got off at Stratford, Liverpool Street was already heaving! I’d heard the Northern Line wasn’t running and there were a number of problems and delays with our services, with a lot of people standing around in confusion. I took the Metropolitan Line to King’s Cross, before arriving at Euston on the Victoria Line.

11:03 am – arriving at Euston 10-15 minutes prior to the departure of the train, I met up with James and Jack, before buying food and fanta. Unfortunately, there was a mix-up with the booking of the tickets and with a ticket inspector carefully guarding the train ready to leave; I jumped on the 11:03 alone, whilst the other two waited around for theirs – the 11:23. The journey, despite only being an hour and a half, was boring – my iPod battery ran out within 20 minutes, and although I had packed my phone charger, there wasn’t much to do. To keep myself entertained, I shoved an entire box of Daim Mikado in my mouth, much to the amusement of the man opposite me, and as soon as the clock reached midday I treated myself to an archers and lemonade!

12:28 pm – I arrived at Birmingham New Street after stops at Rugby, Coventry and Birmingham International. The train to Burton-on-Trent ended up being delayed by five minutes, and the platform was packed – I caught glimpse of a handful of Bees’ fans, and a massive hen party heading to Nottingham really stood out from the crowd, with their pink feather boas, and general noise! I met-up with the boys again on the train, and with there being no seats in the carriage, we sat in first class – jumping up when the ticket inspector arrived. We managed to get seats and a table, after he let the hen party go in the empty first class area – they were quite a bizarre group, the majority in their late 20s and 30s, and then a token girl who looked about 15! The train to Burton was no longer than half an hour, and more drinks were consumed.

1:18 pm – on arrival at Burton station, rumour had it a lot of Barnet fans were already at the Devonshire Arms pub, a five minute walk away. Despite it being a rather small and generally pokey establishment, there were a decent number of travelling fans there, all in good voice and spirits. As soon as we set foot inside, there were songs being sung, and plenty of empty glasses and bottles! But then again, who could blame them – you can’t go wrong with a bottle of Bud and a Malibu + coke for £4.20! We definitely created an atmosphere in there – much to the clear annoyance of what looked like a mother and son bar team! The police later on arrived to a chant of “Oh, Old Bill we love you” – although as soon as they left, the ‘love’ was soon changed to ‘hate’.

2:40 pm – we were one of the last to leave the pub, with groups of people coming and going when taxis arrived, and we arrived at the Pirelli Stadium within 10 minutes of kick-off. I managed to pay student admission costing me £12 for the terrace; although I wish I had tried to blag an under-18 at only £4 – bargain! I was slightly disappointed there were no paper tickets, but never mind… the terrace itself was absolutely packed with very little standing room, so I placed myself at the back, next to the aisle, ignoring the people that told me I “can’t stand there”.

Match report will appear soon

5:00 pm – after the match, the majority of fans stayed behind giving the team continuous support. The players came over to where we were behind the goal, to applaud us and vice versa, before returning to the dressing room. The Burton players then came out, but it was short-lived, as many of their fans had long gone. After some chanting for the Barnet players to return, they did – with cameras and reporters getting involved, I assume covering Monday’s Late Kick Off show. We must have stayed in the ground for a good 25 minutes, just taking it what we had just witnessed, before going back to the station – the singing continuing all the way!

5:49 pm – we left Burton station and were heading back to Birmingham for the changeover. A large group got off at Tamworth to head for a pub they previously frequented in the day and despite getting off myself, I quickly changed my mind as didn’t really fancy travelling back later – especially across London at 11pm or so! So two of us got the train from Tamworth to Euston, via Birmingham New Street.

7:49 pm – after arriving at Euston, I made my own way back to Liverpool Street – as everyone was heading for North London. After following the same route back as I took in the morning, I got the 8:35 train from Liverpool Street to Southend Victoria, stopping at Stratford, before getting off at Shenfield. Both the tube and over ground train were packed with Chelsea and Liverpool supporters fresh from Wembley and there were some Essex Liverpool ‘fans’ opposite me on the train home. I must admit I felt a bit bad constantly staring and grinning at them, but I was still absolutely buzzing! I got home just after 9, where I excitedly waited for the Football League Show – of course, their coverage was like any other week: shocking!

But what a day!

We are Barnet – we’ll never go down!