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Shelton From The Storm
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Winning in the rain...just
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By:
Max Bygraves
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28/01/2026
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This article has been viewed 234 times.
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It is almost quite unbelievable that Barnet and Tranmere have never been in the same league before this season. Although they’re a club of considerably greater stature than us, given their generally miserable recent history, it’s crazy it’s taken this long for our paths to cross. I saw on social media before the game, it was the 25th anniversary of Tranmere’s famous 0-3 win at Everton in the FA Cup 4th Round. What a sobering way to spend such an occasion, in the driving January rain on a Tuesday night at The Hive. Especially with that ending.
I think the midweek drives to said location are even more miserable than the Saturday ones (as a home fan!). The post-work scramble to reach such an inconvenient outpost, especially in such bleak conditions, not ideal. It’s too much thinking time to question the choice that’s being made. I feel like I can always validate it once I’m there and watching, but I’d have hoped approaching about 100 such journeys now that feeling would wear a little. It hasn’t yet, anyway.It’d be fair to say it felt quite a typical Tuesday crowd upon arrival just before kick off. Plenty of room to spread out. I imagine there’ll be some pictures on Twitter from Tranmere fans having a pop at our ‘terrible support,’ scattered across one stand. A Tuesday night staple. In fairness to them, looking out at a sparsely populated one and a half sides of ground and a car park must have caused a bit of head-scratching at just what they’d done travelling there from Birkenhead on a Tuesday night. 422 of them. An impressive effort given the distance and their recent form.
In case the pitch wasn’t wet enough from a day of rain, the sprinklers were in full force just prior to kick off. That extra zip seemed to give us some from the way we started. A thundering strike from Ofoborh went just wide in the fourth minute and a sustained spell of pressure followed. It was much better than Saturday’s opening. We were up and at ‘em; very much only one team in it in the early exchanges.
And then? Nothingness. Aside from a worrying looking injury to Tranmere’s Conor Jennings 25 minutes in (which caused a lengthy first half stoppage time), absolutely nothing happened.
This was discussed at half time in a noticeably quieter bar. The queue was the shortest seen all season. A heady mix of a low attendance and the last knockings of Dry January, perhaps? At least something to add some filler.
During the first half of the second period, it did strike me that I was going to have very little to write about. The safety net of talking about the weather, maybe? It didn’t half rain. Pleased with my triple sock, double trouser and thermal top effort though, at least it wasn’t cold.
Finally, a footballing point of note was the introduction of birthday boy, Anthony Hartigan. I hadn’t seen the post-match interview from Saturday, but I’m led to believe that our skipper was somewhat hung out to dry. Him being benched was no big surprise. In this post-match interview, it was a very different verdict full of praise from the manager. Quite the swing in opinion. Credit where it’s due though, he did make a difference and change things when coming on. Having had arguably his best game this season in the away fixture back in October, it would be fair to say they’re an opposition that suit him.
Chinedu at left back had a much improved contribution compared to Saturday prior to being replaced. Jayesimi, who was introduced late on for an injured Ryan Glover, also showed considerably more encouraging flashes. No one was being hasty in their assessment on Saturday but nonetheless, pleasing to see some immediate improvement from both. What was a little puzzling in the context of chasing a goal in a 0-0 was neither striker coming off the bench. I’ve lost count of the number of times collective heads have shaken in the stand at the sight of Hawkins in the 70th minute. It seemed a strange one not to introduce either him or Assombalonga.
On the latter, given the rumoured wage he is picking up, it is some very expensive bench-warming being done. I’ve read a few comments recently online for ‘TK to get the chequebook out’ and similar. I understand why but I also think we have to be realistic about what’s already been spent. I have absolutely no inside knowledge of this by the way; my source for Britt’s wages very much based on rumour. More fun that way, isn’t it? But it doesn’t take a genius in football finance to see the chequebook has indeed been opened quite a lot since the summer, perhaps not always terribly productively. It’ll be interesting to see if anyone else comes in this week, but my feeling would be that expectations should be tempered on spending so far.
Before we get back to the game, some idea on the whereabouts and future of Callum Stead would be appreciated. It feels like he’s nearing the end of his time and again, several rumours abound. If he is to depart, it would be nice for him to be able to receive a send-off fitting for someone who has made the contribution he has.
As quite a lot of writing about other things when supposedly going over the game in chronological order might suggest, the entertainment value didn’t really elevate as time ticked on. By the time we were in the 80s in terms of minutes, I’d made peace with the idea of seeing a first league 0-0 draw here since November 2024. The fourth official’s board signalling five minutes wasn’t even met with a particularly enthusiastic cheer. Resignation to a stalemate all round.
The clock ticked past the signalled +5 minutes but the referee still didn’t blow. There was to be one last roll of the dice and it was to be bloody brilliant.
Idris Kanu lofted in a deft cross from the left. This was inadvertently flicked on by a Tranmere defender and there was Mark Shelton, at close range with a stooping header to nick the three points for Barnet. Last minute winners are always great but the utter surprise feeling as this one too added further enjoyment.
A real advert for not leaving early. 95 minutes of dross all worth it for a glorious 96th minute. Much jubilation at the full time whistle on and off the pitch. Meanwhile, in the away end, a lot of finger pointing and a bloke in a t-shirt doing a strange waving thing with his arms at the weary players sheepishly applauding their following. That is a long journey home.
As we made our way down the steps, a regular reader of these articles made an amusing quip that it was ‘very appropriate that the Scousers were burgled.’ Included and credit given, my rodent friend. Make of it what you will.
5 points off the play offs, with a game in hand. It doesn’t take much to start looking up again, does it? Circumstances have conspired that it’s fairly probable I can make the trip to Shropshire on Saturday due to the handy location of some family nearby. Still not a definite, but a lot more likely after Shelton’s rain-soaked moment of glory.
A final footnote, having taken the unusual step of logging into BFC TV to watch Brennan’s post-match interview. I understand the point about the lack of fans, but I question if having a pop about this is the right course of action. It was strange to say people would say it’s his fault, I don’t think anyone would say that. I’ve alluded to the key reason a million times before and even in the beginning of the article. I’m not sure this approach is going to be the way to entice more people along for next Tuesday’s fixture. Nothing wrong with pointing out disappointment at the low numbers, but maybe focusing on the positive of those who were actually there and using this as an encouragement point to others would be a more productive approach. Time for the club to consider some midweek-specific pricing?
Onto Shrewsbury...
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