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Perspective
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The view from the armchair supporter over the Irish Sea as the 2025-2026 season ends with a so near yet so far conclusion.
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By:
Eric Hitchmo
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07/05/2026
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This article has been viewed 192 times.
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The 2025-2026 season will go down as a so near yet so far season. Expectations were high after a record-breaking fourth National League title in 2025, but some of us had to eat a few slices of humble pie as the season got off to a very slow start. Others were more pragmatic, and a mid-table finish was perfectly acceptable as a foundation to build on. In the end, after an exceptional finish, we were a whisker away from sneaking into the playoffs. Let’s get into it and see what went right and what went wrong.
Pre-season chatter was all about how the gap between League Two and National League wasn’t that high and how our style should hold strong at this level. Not entirely the case, as we found out rather quickly by losing our first three league matches and being dumped out of the League Cup before it had even started. We aren’t the first set of fans who have underestimated the gap, and we certainly won’t be the last.
In fairness, we adapted pretty quickly and found some form before things started to get dicey. By game 12 after a sumptuous display at Tranmere we were sitting 7th having won six and drawn two of our next nine. From then on things started to get inconsistent and hopes of holding onto that position glimmered and faded with each passing week. In the end, after some poor results in March, we left ourselves with too much to do.
Or did we? A remarkable run of form to end the season including wins against MK, Notts County and Cambridge gave us renewed hope, but the similar form of Chesterfield and Grimsby squashed those hopes with a game to spare.
In reflecting on our first season back in the Football League in eight years, I’m trying to be as objective as possible. Factually, it will go down as one of our best in the 22 seasons we’ve had as a League club. In simple terms…
- Our 2nd highest points tally in 22 seasons.
- Our 6th best finishing position in the pyramid, each of our three playoff campaigns were secured with less than 76 points.
- Our average league position prior to this season is 15.5.
- Joint 2nd most wins in a season.
- Most away points (40) and away wins (11) in a season, previously was 33 points and 9 wins.
- A higher average attendance (2847) than every season since 1992-1993, albeit with a large away following included.
That being said, if we’re being hyper-critical, it’s a shame that we didn’t fully keep the momentum going from last year. Wasteful in front of goal at times, susceptible to conceding stupid goals, allowing many leads to slip by not killing games off when we’ve dominated, our record against the bottom four, the list of frustrating things goes on. So many “what-ifs”.
When we clicked, we looked really good and a force in this division, but on many occasions, we were too passive and had a knack of shooting ourselves in the foot. The way that we ended the season however should give us a lot of to be optimistic about and if that level is something we can maintain, then the sky is the limit next year.
Recruitment was mixed. We brought in a lot of players who didn’t cut it and were offloaded swiftly in the January transfer window. Our use of the loan market was generally poor. Of the 13 permanent signings we made, you’d expect maybe 3-4 to stay on if they haven’t left already. Adam Senior however is a notable exception and if it wasn’t for Ryan Glover would probably have been a shoo-in for player of the season. You also wonder what we could’ve done with a player like Tshimanga for the whole season given our goalscoring problems.
As far as I’m concerned, Brennan and the team get a full free pass on recruitment. They weren’t to be fully aware of the challenges of this level having never managed here before and therefore were kind of in the dark. Was our style of play going to work in League Two? Were the players we brought in going to pick that style up, or be able to adapt if we needed to? All unknowns at the start of the season.
As I say, the above is me being hyper-critical. Nit-picking if you will. Playing devil’s advocate. In the end, we have missed the playoffs by two points and the automatics by six. It’s a bit of a freak season in that regard. Only twice since playoffs were invented in the fourth tier have 76 points not been enough to qualify.
As a fanbase we had been starved of success for a long time, so when we had some success, we liked it, and we wanted more of it. Give or take, we had three years of some really good football being played by Barnet from the start of 2022-2023 until the end of 2024-2025. 74 points, 86 points and 102 points. Two playoff campaigns and a league title.
Our home league record across those three seasons was 46-14-9, i.e. we won 66% of games at home and lost only 13%. We were completely unbeaten at home in 2024-2025. We went on a near-record 25 league games unbeaten home and away. We kept EIGHT league clean sheets in a row away from home, three more than any such run ever. 263 league goals scored in three seasons. There’s more, how long have you got?
That kind of success drug is hard to get off. That feeling of turning up to a game thinking, or knowing, that you’re going to win. It’s almost too easy. Sometimes it takes a bit of a jolt to realise that you can’t have it all your own way and you can’t win them all. We are by definition a lower league club and we don’t win every week. Just like all the other crap around us, we aren’t Man Utd or Arsenal or Liverpool or Man City.
Reminiscing is always something we sensationalise. Things always seem really good or really bad in our heads when we look back on them. Fortunately for me I have the old DSH article archive from 2009-2013 to hand. Just reading a couple of those from times where we really were very bad is a sobering thing to do.
You’d think that these articles were written by a manic depressive given how melodramatic they tended to be. Not only it is a snapshot of ramblings from a much younger man (boy, perhaps) but it also an insight into how bad Barnet were at a point in time. For context I was a staunch home and away supporter at this time. Saturday, Tuesday, you name it, Grimsby, Accrington, I saw us lose there. Compared to that, this season is absolute bliss and I only wish I could’ve been there more.
If we need any further comparison of where we’ve come from then surely the last decade is enough of a barometer. We were relegated in 2018 after just three years back in the League, in a total calamity of a season which saw four different managers take charge in a home ground we were absolutely not comfortable in.
We brought John Still out of effective retirement to steer us through the return to the National League. That lasted four months. Darren Currie then got the ship steady, took us on an unbelievable cup run and then seemed to be putting us back on the right path by guiding us to a PPG technicality behind closed doors COVID playoff place. We had minimal expectations there but at least we won a tie (at Yeovil) before succumbing to Notts County. And then what followed…
…look we all know what happened in the COVID season of 2020-2021. We don’t need to go over it again. It was simply one of the worst seasons in the club’s history by any measurable metric. By rights we should have been playing regional football in August 2021, but in the space of less than two years we were lining up in the National League Playoffs again. We did so again a year later and after a total of just four years after the COVID debacle we were a Football League club again.
While we are all disappointed to have missed the playoffs, the general mood seems to be extremely positive. Finishing 8th in League Two is something than an entire generation of Barnet fans has never seen. Let’s not be in any doubt, despite some nagging doubts in the backs of our minds, this club is moving forward at pace.
By now we are all aware that the one catalyst in all of this is Dean Brennan. Remove him from the equation and everything falls apart. His achievement in dragging this football club out of the doldrums will go down in club legend and be spoken about for generations to come. This is not some kind of romanticised overstatement; he has guided the club from the bottom of the National League to its highest league finish in 26 years. 26 years!
The infrastructure he has built around him with his core management team and staff, as well as the football team is not to be underestimated either. All staff play a key role, be it coaching, organising or scouting. This kind of setup is something we’ve not seen here for years, if ever. When the foundations are solid, no wonder we are on an upward trajectory.
But to me his biggest achievement remains the uniting of the fanbase. Make no mistake, this club was absolutely on its arse when he took over. He took a fractured fanbase, still sore over the move from Underhill to The Hive, and within a few years got us all united behind our common cause once again. The phrase “togetherness” doesn’t seem to be some catchy slogan designed to hoodwink the public into believing anything he says, it has meaning and purpose to it.
And it’s working, our average attendance of 2847 was higher than any season since 1992-1993, albeit with large away followings. By our standards, support is healthy and better than it’s been for a long, long time. We just wouldn’t mind being able to get a pint at half time, that’s all.
The question now is, what next? Another string to Brennan’s bow is his ability to learn fast, adapt and be decisive. He will be clear on what he thinks we need to make the next step. The question mark we have is, will he be backed to do so by the club? If ever there was a time to gamble, surely it is now. We seem to be in a solid financial position and revenue would surely be as high as it’s ever been particularly with sell-on clauses still filtering in nicely.
Perhaps this may be advanced as a reason for the fairly steep increase in season ticket prices. As long as it’s not handled in the same way as it was in 2016 with “The Dilemma” shambles, we might be OK. If you don’t remember this one, it was an update shared by the chairman which justified the increase in ticket prices ahead of the new season which was left with a choice; do you want to pay more for tickets so we can invest in the squad, or we’ll keep the prices as they are and do our best. We paid more for tickets and within a couple of years we were relegated. Oh, I still remember it. I’m not bitter.
If, as we expect, the stars of our squad are picked over in the summer, Brennan needs to be given free rein to not only replace them but also improve the squad and its depth this summer. After a year of learning the level and coming so close to taking us into the playoffs, he will need to find that little extra ingredient or two to help us step on. Competition next season will of course be fierce, and we need to strike while the iron is hot. In other words, give the man what he wants.
All in all, it remains a very good time to be a Barnet fan. Four seasons of continuous progress and positive outcomes, there is no reason to think that there won’t be more. For me, it is still jarring watching from afar and having the fear of missing out. Two kids of two and under will pin me to the house a little longer, but I hope to indulge a little more next season if I can. Perhaps missing these good times is penance for going missing in the mid-2010s.
As has been said before, enjoy it while it lasts, because this can’t go on forever. Or maybe it can…
As an important footnote, this week sees the outcome of the local elections across the country and will have implications for the Bring Barnet Back campaign depending on what happens with control of Barnet Council. The BBB team shared an update at the start of the week with the work that is ongoing as well as plans, much of which may hinge on the outcome of this election. BBB remains a huge priority for the club and for us, so please help us support the campaign as and when more information is available.
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