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A LOOK BACK - 2003-2004 - Part 5 - February & March
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Several key results as we approach the business end of the season, before a sudden shock changes it all.
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By:
Max Bygraves
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10/07/2022
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This article has been viewed 668 times.
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February
On The Weaver’s Jukebox this month
Franz Ferdinand - Take Me Out
IN: Matt Redmile
February began with a short trip to Hampshire to take on Aldershot Town. The Shots impressive first season at this level showed no signs of stopping and such was the stature of this hunting for the play offs clash, it had been selected by Sky and moved to the Friday night. George Gavin and Ian Snodin in place, the nation awaited a Friday thriller.
This game has been mentioned on our social media and podcast before for its atmosphere. That season at Aldershot, they split the big East Bank terrace behind the goal between home and away fans. As enthusiastic youngsters, the noise that was being generated under the acoustic friendly barrel roof really did seem quite something. I don’t want to know the truth in that statement.
Game hasn’t even kicked off here. You can almost hear the decibel level from this picture.
Aldershot is not the nicest of places and a big game, under the lights, with excitable fans on both sides of a big fence on an old school terrace felt quite intimidating and was a recipe for a proper atmosphere. Future visits to Aldershot (barring the following season) have always felt a little hollow compared to this.
Debuting for Barnet that night was centre back Matt Redmile. Something of a lower league journey man and very much a big old lump; the imposing figure had arrived from Scarborough just a few days after featuring in their narrow 0-1 FA Cup 4th Round defeat to new money Chelsea.
He really didn’t look like a footballer but he quickly became popular with his new supporters and cult hero status was quickly secured with a first half header down our end. As I recall, it went absolutely bananas behind the goal. The bundles were so good that the Met Police standing in the section keeping the fans apart thought they’d film them, and then continue to capture the away end for the remainder of the evening.
That’s what a man should look like.
Midway through the second half, Challinor grabbed an equaliser for the home side and the game went on to finish as a 1-1 draw. Probably a fair result on reflection. A memorable night at The Recreation Ground nonetheless.
The next day, with no Barnet game to attend, several of us made the short jaunt up the A1 to Stevenage. The morning saw a very early incarnation of FCBFCSA win a 6-a-side fixture 7-5 against our Hertfordshire rivals. My abiding memory being the editor of a certain website getting fully lobbed for one of their goals - in one of those low, 5-a-side nets.
Oh the banter.
Not satisfied with replacing watching Barnet for playing in the shirts ourselves, a slightly more select group ventured to Broadhall Way that afternoon to see Stevenage Borough take on Telford United. In the away end, obviously. What was that about a wasted youth? A second half goal for the Bucks saw us enthusiastically running down the steps of the away end and fully celebrating a 1-0 away victory with our new friends from Shropshire.
I recall getting a rail replacement bus and then several other buses home after the game, returning to then watch the full VHS my dad had recorded for me of the night before’s Barnet game. Living life to the full.
A third Saturday in a row without a fixture loomed next, due to no FA Trophy game. However, due to some clever fixture shifting a second week in a row with a Friday night away game was planned, this time in the Hertfordshire Senior Cup Semi Final. Boreham Wood, then of the Ryman Division 1 North, were the hosts.
Barnet fielded a decent strength side and it was a sizeable away following for the magnitude of the fixture. The first 45 minutes were pretty routine stuff. Barnet were 2-0 up at half time and comfortable. A place in the semis surely awaited.
However, the second 45 saw all hell break loose. Boreham Wood really sprung into action, on and off the pitch. A loud, quite aggressive contingent of locals behind the opposite goal cheered their side on to a spirited fight back. Things initially seemed to be good natured before racist chanting about the population of Barnet soured things. Elsewhere, entertainment was being found off the pitch in looking over the back fence to the goings on in a bedroom of a house overlooking the ground. It was an unusual away day.
The game finished 2-2 in 90 minutes and the hosts completed the comeback in extra time, prompting wild celebrations as Barnet were dumped out of the cup. We couldn’t get on that 107 bus quick enough at full time.
A long trek to Morecambe next saw one of the most comprehensive performances on the road of the season.
Inside twelve minutes, Joe Gamble and then Ben Strevens had Barnet 2-0 up. In the 37th minute, Simon Clist scored his first Barnet goal and the 127 who’d made the long trek north were in dreamland. Morecambe pulled one back towards the end, but the result was never in doubt.
Geezer
Despite not losing many, performances hadn’t felt quite as assured since the turn of the year on the whole. This felt like a real statement win as we approached the business end of the campaign.
February ended up with a home game against Tamworth. It wasn’t a classic game but it felt like a big moment for one man in particular.
Liam Hatch had scored on his Barnet debut in the LDV Vans back in match, but the big money (£23,500 don’t forget) signing from Gravesend & Northfleet had not seen any other output for his efforts so far. This was largely the case during most of Hatch’s Barnet career, but due to his effort, there’s certainly an element of rose-tinted memory about a man who was at times an incredibly frustrating player.
But this isn’t the time for such analysis. The short-lived orange streak in his hair hadn’t brought the goals but persistence paid off and his second half strike earned a 1-0 win over the lowly Lambs. The enthusiasm in his celebrating undoubtedly helped generate more on the terrace during an otherwise largely uninspiring game.
As iconic as the Beckham Mohawk
With under two months of the season left, we were right in the promotion mix…
March
On the Weavers Jukebox this month
N.E.R.D. – She Wants To Move
IN: Greg Pearson, Des Hamilton, Danny Naisbitt
OUT: Ademola Bankole
As Spring sprung, Barnet made the long journey to the Devon in early March to visit play off chasing Exeter City. The Grecians were a strong side, but inconsistencies (spoiler) would cost them at the final hurdle. However, a tough test lay in wait.
A decent away following (227) was making the best of the March sunshine on the open terrace behind the goal. The subject of many chants being former Barnet man Sean Devine, leading the line for the hosts. Der der der, drug abuser was the main chant of a pretty negative repertoire. Imagine the outrage when he bagged after 22 minutes down our end and gave us the shhh celebration. Completely justified but did not go down well.
However, in the second half, like buses and all that - Liam Hatch scored a looping header to send the Barnet fans bananas behind the goal. Fabulous picture:
Described these days as “scenes”
A 1-1 draw was a decent result and continued an extended spell without defeat. Everything looked good as we geared up for the visit of Graham Westley’s men the following Tuesday.
Stevenage’s visit to Underhill was being touted as a derby more loudly than any other time to now. Westley’s behaviour added a bit of spice and there was much excitement in the ground ahead of a Tuesday night tie in temperatures that made Spring all of a sudden seem a long way off again!
In the event, a very nothing game ended 0-0. The most notable event of the evening, and certainly more of a lowlight than high was the unfortunate leg break of Boro keeper, Lionel Perez. Famed for being dinked by Eric Cantona in ‘97 playing in the Premier League for Sunderland, this proved to be the Frenchman’s final career game. A coming together with Grazioli left him far worse off. The striker has since described it as the ‘worst moment’ of his career.
Quite quickly, an unbeaten run can look very different when draws begin to take hold and on the face of it, that was the only concern the following Saturday at 5pm after a frustrating 1-1 at Gravesend & Northfleet. Young striker Greg Pearson, recently arrived on loan from West Ham, came off the bench to bag a second half equaliser (and win me my third scorers draw £10 on the coach that season).
Other than feeling we should have won, my abiding memory of that day was suffering from my first ever hangover. 15 years old. At a mates’ house the night before. A bottle of whisky left out by his dad and friends enjoying a few beverages. The smell of it still makes me feel horrendous now. The coach journey to Exeter the week before felt a lot shorter than the jaunt to Kent.
What did lift a young man’s spirits, was the surprise appearance on the coach of one Martin Allen. As we parked up next to the depressing, slightly eerie bus graveyard behind the away end, before we could disembark, Mad Dog jumped on. He gave a rousing speech that we were still chasing the title (miles off) and that promotion was very much the aim. He thanked everyone for their support and everything was very on message for the season thus far.
Late at night the following Wednesday, a few strange rumours started to surface. Texts were shared amongst friends of the worst imaginable rumour. Then on Thursday morning, it was there on the Barnet website.
Martin Allen leaves Barnet.
We’ve spoken about this on the podcast but I cannot stress how much this felt like a genuine heartbreak caused by a first love walking away. The disbelief. The shock. The anger. The confusion on a vulnerable young mind.
For anyone reading this who don’t know what took place. Martin Allen was poached by Brentford. At the time, they were in a relegation dogfight in Division 2 (League One in new money) and not making much of a fight of it. Now, it’s obvious why he would make that jump and take the gamble, but there was a lot of particular anger that we could be in the same league as those bloody fake Bees in just a few months’ time.
It’s not for dramatic effect, genuinely, I would say for about the next two weeks I was walking around in a state of disappointment and noticeably down in the dumps. There was a huge sense of loss. If you’ve managed to stick with this and read all of the articles so far, you’ve hopefully got the sense of just how much things had changed in a short space of time. I absolutely loved going to Barnet anyway, but the engagement Martin Allen had brought all round had amplified that joy hugely.
The whole feel about the place had been so different, people were happy, friendly and it was exciting. It felt like a way of life that for someone so ridiculously immersed in it all had all of a sudden been stripped away without warning.
The emotions varied. There was quite some anger in there too. I found an old programme box in the loft during lockdown from that season where I’d written ‘Martin Allen’s Black & Amber Army’ on. However, presumably in my two weeks under a cloud in March 2004, I’d then written on the same box: “Now he is scum!”
Did I really just put that on the internet?
Very quickly, it was time to see what Barnet and indeed Underhill would be like without him. League leaders Chester City were in town the following Saturday. A caretaker duo of Adrian Whitbread and Damien Doyle oversaw a creditable 0-0 draw. They were both out the door at 5pm to head over to West London too. Ian Hendon and Danny Maddox put in interim charge for the next week.
The atmosphere in the ground for that Chester game was like no other I’ve known. Collectively, the mixture of shock, anger, disbelief, sadness but also wanting to be resilient made for a very unusual cocktail. Nevertheless, the East Terrace did its best to make at the time the standard noise and very much let the players know we still loved them, even if that bastard had gone.
The final Saturday of March was a trip to the countryside and a visit to The (old) Lawn, home of Forest Green Rovers. Hendon & Maddix were technically in charge for this one but it was either already confirmed or widely known that an intriguing interim appointment was being made until the end of the season.
Former Stevenage Borough and current England C manager, Paul Fairclough, a figure with serious Conference pedigree would be stepping in until the end of the season. He took his seat in the stands at Forest Green, to see what he had to work with.
It was to be a 5th draw on the spin in March. Consistent if nothing else. Ben Strevens scored a wonderful free kick to put us ahead, only for the hosts to quickly equalise from the spot, all in the first half hour. 1-1. The second half display saw the side looking how many of the fans appeared to feel. Off key. The highlight being Rovers’ larger than life (in many ways) keeper Steve Perrin eating a chip thrown at him from the away end. A proper non-league character.
What had felt like a long month already, ended with a rearranged midweek game at home to Shrewsbury Town due to their run in the FA Trophy. Jimmy Quinn’s side came to Underhill in good form, whilst despite this being the first game of the Fairclough era, it didn’t look like he was taking on a side brimming with confidence or ready to show that new manager bounce.
9 unbeaten suddenly was 6 without a win. Duane Darby’s goal enough to give the promotion hunting Shrews a significant 0-1 victory in EN5.
Just five points from a possible eighteen in March and Martin Allen leaving. Despite a healthy league position still in the top 5, things very felt different going into the final month of the campaign.
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