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In The Nicke Of Time
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A last gasp goal spares a real case of the January blues...
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By:
Max Bygraves
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09/01/2023
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This article has been viewed 2144 times.
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We’ve had a fun few days on our social media platforms sharing memorable Barnet goals of years gone by. You’d be hard pushed to say Kabamba’s equaliser in this one will live long in the memory, but it felt like a big goal in the moment, and prolongs the unbeaten run. The classic late goal to make a draw feel like a win.
Had we not grabbed a late equaliser, it would have been hard to have had much positive to say about a pretty tough watch against Gateshead. It was a hideous January afternoon; the first Saturday into the New Year, rain lashing down against a dark sky from early afternoon in not the most attention-grabbing of fixtures. Until the 88th minute, it all felt quite bleak.
The game started at pace - briefly - the away side denied an early chance thanks to a superb last ditch challenge by Sam Beard, recovering from an initial error. After that, despite wracking my brains, there’s not too much more I can say about the first half. It happened and it was really wasn’t pretty.
It felt pretty flat all round. A smaller crowd than we’ve began to get more accustomed to, a quieter atmosphere (than we’ve also begun to get used to) and very little to get excited about on the pitch. It wasn’t the ideal celebration of the manager’s new long-term deal.
That news that broke on Thursday, regarding Dean Brennan signing a contract until 2026, has been met with widespread joy from pretty much all Barnet fans who‘ve cared to pass comment. It‘s certainly a change of direction to see the club tie someone down for such a long-time and should offer much-needed stability - something missing since the Fairclough days in the mid 2000s.
I acknowledge that I‘m very much in the minority, but must admit that the first thought I had was ‘is that not a bit too long?‘ Perhaps a bit cynical, but arguably that comes with the territory. There‘s no doubt Brennan has done an exceptional job this campaign with the recruitment being nothing short of outstanding, given where we find ourselves. My only caution to the news is that three months ago there were some cries for his head and we were conceding goals for fun; in addition to him overseeing several results we‘d like to forget about last season. Hopefully the pattern since early November is the one we‘ll continue to follow, but I suppose the big thing now is that if we do hit another sticky patch this season, next, or even further on, perspective and patience will be required by all.
More praise than we‘ve seen for the chairman in a long time, in the wake of this news, too. It‘s fully understandable to some degree, but again, perspective is key here. There is a very, very long road for the man at the top to walk to get on to any sort of parity with a large chunk of our support. Many still don‘t attend games largely due to his decisions and actions of the past. Whilst I have no complaints about the on-field offering this season thus far, I won‘t be cheersing to our Tony anytime soon. Let‘s just hope this and some other recent actions such as ticketing initiatives are a start - but I won‘t hold my breath.
Anyway, back to Gateshead, and any thoughts of dry January had long disappeared by the 39th minute of a turgid first half with the bar looming. It‘s fair to say, it‘s not the liveliest place at the best of times but even by its usual dingy standards, probably compounded by the football and weather, it felt even darker and sterile in there at half time than normal. The TVs not showing football until several requests that were made to the rather intense lady running the bar were finally met didn‘t help. Hopefully the ‘Barnet-ifying‘ plans the Supporters Association have liaised with the club on for a while will come to fruition soon. It‘s got great potential as a space. Not too be too doom and gloom, the serving times continue to show improvement although you had to feel for the new trainee stuff getting well and truly put through their paces and every pint pour cross-examined by the aforementioned bar manager. Still, it‘s good to see standards being set!
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