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By:
Max Bygraves
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07/09/2025
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This article has been viewed 516 times.
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Blimey. Confidence was fairly high ahead of what looked like a bit of a home banker against struggling Shrewsbury. Walking away from that one, a lot of head shaking and questions to be asked.
It had all started pretty well. Bright sunshine, all turnstiles open and working on arrival. The mini club shop next to them seemingly doing a good trade. Improvements from last time. Which way will the pendulum swing on this front next game? I guess the mystery keeps things interesting. What it does seem you can guarantee this season so far is there will be a wedding taking place on-site. Oh and another mysterious twist, the astro turf parking experiment seemingly abandoned with the unused overspill car park back in the game. Who needs the football for excitement?
Before we do the match (in some ways there’s a rush with lots to talk about, in others let’s avoid), it was nice the club acknowledged the ‘voice of Barnet’s’ 25th anniversary working at the club. Craig Saul’s name didn’t ring any bells but his voice certainly does over almost all my time attending games at both venues. Here’s to many more.
As mentioned at the start, this was a struggling Shrewsbury side who began the day in the relegation zone. The Shrews are back in League 2 after an impressive decade-long stint in League 1, including a near miss on promotion one year. However, things have looked less rosy thus far under Michael Appleton.
Using the fine match-tracker on this website, my statistics show me that Shrewsbury are the team I’ve seen us play the second most in my time (Aldershot out in front, if you care). It probably indicates quite clearly the era I was most fanatically home and away but even so, I was astounded to see this was our first league meeting against them since 2012. Yes, I know I just said they did a decade in League 1, but that was new knowledge. A thirteen year gap minus an FA Cup clash just seems impossible. We always play this lot, don’t we?
That was a sentiment Shrewsbury will have come away from this one with - the desire to play us every week.
They had a great chance within the opening ten minutes. Kane Smith was caught out and it was only for an awful finish that it wasn’t another home game where we found ourselves behind early on. A hard to decipher line up saw us kick off with Smith inexplicably playing in the middle of a back three with Collinge and Senior. Captain Hartigan dropped to the bench with High starting. After regularly being subbed off recently too, there’s a bit of a feeling for me that maybe things are only heading in one direction for him. We will see.
After weathering the storm of a pretty dubious first ten minutes, a first this season: the opening goal in a game at The Hive for Barnet. Ofoborh’s good work put him in a great position and he squared it to Mark Shelton who finished with the kind of aplomb we got used to last season.
What happened next was truly astonishing. Shrewsbury took kick off. The ball went back to their keeper. He knocked it long. A header flicked it onto their advancing striker and in a bizarre moment the ball was trickling past Slicker off the foot of Danny Collinge. An own goal to level the score within seconds of the restart. Just unbelievable. I must admit, I’ve had to recount that from a watch of the highlights. My friend was showing me something on his phone - I looked up and the away end was celebrating. What a mess.
We had the possession but Shrewsbury were now in the ascendancy. We potentially got away with a penalty claim not long after. Kane Smith didn’t have too memorable of an afternoon, however, his quick thinking(?) to grab his face when the ball appeared to strike his arm threw the ref off the penalty scent. Not that she got much right all day.
Within 10 minutes of the equaliser, it felt like the wheels well and truly had come off. First, Dean Brennan was sent off for reasons unknown. Given his well-publicised vernacular from the dugout, it must have been quite something that he said to someone. He went up into the boardroom and cut a desperate figure for the rest of the afternoon watching the game through the glass, arms all over the place despite not being on the touchline.
No sooner had Brennan disappeared to make his way upstairs were we 1-2 down. A very quick turnaround completed after a soft parry from Slicker put the ball into the path of Bradley Ihiovien. The deadline day signing from Peterborough made no mistake. He was a pain all afternoon and really bullied Smith in the first half. It has to be said, he looked exactly like the sort of Football League savvy centre forward we perhaps could have done with initially bringing in this season.
Everything was just really unravelling now. We were all over the place, incredibly open and the back and disjointed across the pitch. This was the sort of Barnet showing we have not been used to seeing over the past three years.
Amidst all this, in the stands, a really strange scenario spotted as the aggressive looking steward with the short hair who has been making herself very much known this season tried to get the Amber Battalion to sit down. Yes, we do have a safe standing area, but in that part of Legends stand it’s unwritten now that lot stand there and make their noise. No one seemed to be complaining. The inconsistency with what is and isn’t picked up by the stewards is astounding. We’ll maybe revisit later.
Unfortunately, there was another talking point on the pitch before half time. On our row, we’d just been discussing Sam Clucas in the Shrewsbury side. In fact, I still have the tab open on my phone of the game we’d looked up where he scored 2 goals for Swansea in the Premier League against Arsenal in 2018.
As much of a good player as he no doubt has been and seemingly still is at League 2 level, there’s no way he meant the outrageous goal which gave Shrewsbury a two goal advantage. A powerfully whipped cross fizzed its way past Slicker and into the top corner. Disaster.
It really should have been 1-4 by half time. A late counter attack saw an incredible scenario where it was a case of 3 Shrewsbury attackers without any defenders and with just the keeper to beat. Terrible finishing meant the scores stayed the same. It must be said, there was a clear foul not given to us in the build up, but a shocking waste from them nevertheless.
A slightly shell-shocked bar at the break. The consensus was thank goodness this wasn’t against particularly strong opposition. On the bar service itself, I’m having a quiet September so not sampling the produce. Reports were that it wasn’t too bad. Keep pre-pouring, it’s better! More on that in a few games’ time.
Half time saw a change in personnel. Ben Winterburn’s league debut had not perhaps produced what it might have been hoped. He found himself dragged for Ryan Galvin, with the defence switching to a back four. On paper, bringing on a left back for an attacking midfielder when 1-3 down didn’t look the most forward thinking. Although Conor Smith alluded to in the post-match, this was to try and get things under control again before rolling the dice.
When the dice was rolled on the hour, Stead, Adeniran and a little later Hartigan did little to change things going forward. It was good to see Tavares back on in defence. He simply has to come back in to start next week if fit enough.
The second half entertainment quality was not great. Something of a distraction at the front of the stand was a strange chap walking up and down encouraging the crowd to sing and then shouting that everyone who wasn’t was sleeping (complete with actions). He went and bothered the youths at the back for a bit, who from their songs as he departed, weren’t too keen on his involvement. Slightly more troubling was towards the end of the game when he continued to walk up and down the gangway at the front with his shirt off, surrounded by kids, shouting all sorts. Interestingly, not once was his sketchy behaviour challenged by the stewards challenged nor was he re-directed to his seat. But let’s make sure the noisy youngsters at the back are sitting down, eh? Apparently he has been sighted doing similar behaviour at a game a few seasons ago. Hopefully this afternoon’s atmosphere not meeting his standards will be enough to put off any return. Very, very odd.
The substitutes made little impact. The clock ticked away and it was a shame not to see the young Chelsea striker newly signed on loan, Ronnie Stutter, get a chance off the bench. I like Hawkins but this very much was not his game. Again, he was on the wrong end of an absurd amount of shirt pulling, but irrespective of this his impact was minimal. Fresh legs and a different approach may have had an impact.
The standard of refereeing arguably got worse as the game went on. Shrewsbury were denied one of the most stonewall penalties I’ve ever seen in the 82nd minute. A few minutes later, Collinge was completely wiped out in a clash in the middle of the field and the decision went their way. Impossible to make sense of it all.
Nik Tavares doing Nik Tavares things in the 89th minute when he coolly got out of a sticky situation with total composure was perhaps the highlight of the whole match. He probably should have got man of the match for that. The club’s 80th minute tweet asking “who has most impressed you,” a little tone deaf in the wording. Not a day to remember for anyone.
In stoppage time, there was a head scratcher of a missed chance. Glover’s header was initially saved and then Shelton missed the target on the rebound when it looked easier to score. Just about summed it up.
I’m not really up for the whole ‘boooooo,’ thing in any context. Despite how awful that was, I’m not sure it warrants such a reaction. Yes, it was pretty depressing viewing but I never understand how responding like that is going to make any sort of difference. It’s also just a little bit weird as a fully grown adult to make that noise. Try it at home and see what you think.
I can let football dictate my weekend and leave me on a complete high when we get a great win; a defeat like this doesn’t have the same impact. There were a few worried comments from various people as we shuffled out the ground, I get it. It’s disappointing. It wasn’t good enough. By the time you’ve got home though, it’s time to look forward to the next. Life’s too short. Also, we’ve been spoilt for the last few seasons and maybe one or two have forgotten the reality of supporting a team like Barnet.
Tough run of games coming up but we are still at the stage of the season where results can raise eyebrows. Given Grimsby’s recent form, they’re not the most welcome next Hive opposition after navigating a tricky looking trip to Crewe. I can’t go next week. The one time I went there we lost 7-0. It can’t be as bad as that can it? Why can I hear Mick McCarthy’s voice from that infamous Blackpool interview clip?
Oh and a final note. It’ll always get a mention until a permanent change. Stop playing that awful ‘encore’ tune when we don’t win. Enough now!
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