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What A Pathetic Mess
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It's Blue, It's Square...
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By:
Eric Hitchmo
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13/02/2011
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More On Torquay United
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"This season has been a complete write-off from the start. What a waste of mine, yours and everyone's time. This club has been slowly eeking towards relegation ever since it came back up. We have barely threatened any sort of success and have bought nothing of note to the Football League table. We will sink back into the Conference with not even a sign of the merest whimper, as the worst Barnet team I have seen in ten years (you may be able to quote a longer timespan) limps pathetically along to fulfil its obligation to play 46 games in a season. It really looks like we're just here now to make up the numbers.
There is no support, no belief. Fans attend at Underhill out of sheer blind loyalty, whatever there is left of it. They don't sit in hope, they sit there out of pure madness it would seem. Football clubs grip on to a person like not many other things can. I don't want to be sat at Underhill watching that rubbish all the time. What is it giving me? What is it giving you? Why would we put ourselves through the mill on a regular basis. It's because we care too much I suppose. It is evident though that those we place our hope in, the eleven men on the field, do not.
I keep finding myself saying the same old things after a game. That is just one reason I haven't written about a game for a while. It's because I can't find anything different to say. I can't find any other hope to cling on to. I've long given up on this team. So has everyone else. While home support somehow hovers around 1,500 still, away support has fizzled and dissolved. You and I justifiably cannot spend our time and money on watching a team that is going nowhere but down. I stood at Aldershot last week with maybe 150 other people. 150?! At Aldershot?! Pathetic. But it sums it up. The stayaways are right to do so. I remember standing with four times that number at Aldershot when we won the league, celebrating on a packed terrace when Simon King belted in a late winner. Players and fans celebrated together, and maybe that's a key ingredient that is missing.
The bond between players and supporters was a massive part in selling Barnet Football Club to me. My previous football experiences consisted of going to a game, seeing the players from a distance and walking off at the end of the game. You'd never dream of meeting them. However, Barnet showed me that it's not all like that. The blissful period of 2003 to 2005 in particular highlighted what football should be about. Players and fans showing an incredible togetherness at all times. You'd see them around the ground and they'd be more than happy to talk to you about Barnet. Sometimes they'd come to the local pub. They'd genuinely appreciate your support at the end of a game. And we did support, because they gave us something to shout and be proud about.
This bunch do not show the slightest bit of it. We see and hear nothing of these players. They don't look like they're happy to be here. They don't look like they want to be here. They make little effort to engage with the supporters that have remained. When you show contempt towards your fanbase, you shouldn't be surprised to hear a bit of stick from the terraces. It makes it very hard for me to get behind them when they don't show appreciation. Glen Southam may be a limited footballer but at least he is trying to engage with the supporters. I couldn't name one other player who does that. Michael Stone told me at Potters Bar the other night that ""the team needs your support"" and ""we all need to be as one as Barnet FC"". Yes, you're right Michael, but you should be telling that to your players. It's a two-way thing. Show some fight on the pitch and you'll get some support off it. Continue to put in limp performances week after week and you'll get stick and/or no atmosphere. It's simple.
Yesterday was yet another showing of how not to do it. It was typical of this team this season. Come out all guns blazing and look half decent but not take any of the reasonable chances you create, which is strange when you have someone of the calibre of Izale McLeod up top. The first 20 minutes was largely Barnet, but the ball just wouldn't go in. Soon, the inevitable comes and Torquay break and open the scoring with their first really meaningful effort on goal. The sign of a doomed side.
Minutes later, loanee Anthony Pulis got himself sent off with a stupid high challenge on a Torquay midfielder. Clear red. Thanks for your efforts. The rest of the game was a formality. The team has absolutely no confidence in it, and there was no leader on the field to attempt to instill any. Suddenly, after a bright start, Clovis Kamdjo became a shaky defensive mess. Joe Devera's passing started going to anyone not in a Barnet shirt. McLeod strolled around up front not getting much service and not looking interested. It could have been more for Torquay, it was only a matter of time, there was no way back into this game for us.
And so it proved in the second half. Two more goals for the visitors and their travelling supporters who were vast in number went home having seen their team gain the easiest three points they'll get all season. How many visiting teams can say that?
It will soon be time to start planning for trips to Conference venues. There are some familiar places down there, some unfamiliar, and some very uninspiring. People say to me it'll be ""more fun"" down there. Perhaps so. However with the size of the some of the clubs down there, and seeing how long it's taken them to make an impact, it doesn't look too bright. The away days might be good, it might get a few people back if we start winning games. But for now it's a very depressing and very stark reality.
Better start preparing for it, it's happening."
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