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Callum Stead
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Title winner and non-stop runner, our latest club legend is Callum Stead.
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02/07/2026
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More On Callum STEAD
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by Max Bygraves
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“He’ll chase a crisp packet in the wind.” This is how Barnet fans were introduced to the raw prospect of Callum Stead upon his arrival in the summer of 2023. He leaves a lot more than that. 50 goals in 124 games with a work rate that puts him in a very special bracket. Not too much deliberation here to add him to the legends section.
A local-ish lad born in Enfield and schooled in the surrounding areas. Callum had had quite an up and down start in the game. Spotted by Luton at the relatively late age of 17 playing ninth tier football, a year in their academy was all he got before having to start over. By the time of his move to Barnet, with a few geographically interesting switches along the way, he’d clambered his way up to National League North level.
From his early role in the team and way he’d been announced, you got the sense he wasn’t brought into initially be in the first eleven. He had to be patient. He came to most people’s attention with a typical high energy displayoff the bench in his second outing at Boreham Wood in early September of his first season. By the end of that month, he’d got a first start and goal in a win at Kidderminster.
The memory can play tricks as to my mind, he was a fixture in the team from pretty early in that first campaign. In reality, 20 starts and 15 sub appearances, which saw him chip in with 15 goals came as an impressive introduction.
In a season where Barnet were never out of the top playoff spots but after November, never in a title race, Stead made the considerable step up look easy. The rawness was an advantage. There was a fearlessness, albeit a little bit of a touch of unpredictability but above all excitement. From that first extended cameo where he came on at 0-0 and contributed to the team winning late at Boreham Wood, Stead bringing excitement was something that remained a constant through that first year and beyond.
In the second half of the season, he fully established himself in the team. At times there were questions if he could be in the same starting eleven as Kabamba. The answer ended up being a resounding yes. The 6-0 drubbing of Dorking a highlight of that combination.
A late season injury meant he was only available off the bench in the playoff debacle against Solihull. A day best forgotten for all. But in hindsight, of the players to perhaps benefit from another season in the National League, Stead had to be top of the list.
Six goals by the end of September 2024 with Barnet sat top of the league suggested he was very much ready to step up as one of the main men. 2 goals at Ebbsfleet on the second weekend of the season to get us off the mark after a disappointing opening day not to undermined in their importance, one of them of particular quality.
However, whilst his all-round contribution was never questioned, the goals did dry up and he found himself in and out of the team for much of the second quarter of the season. A New Year’s Day equaliser at Eastleigh ended a near three-month drought and set the tone for the rest of the year ahead. Stead started every game from that point on, en route to the title.
Just prior to the New Year’s Day goal, I had the pleasure of meeting Callum in something of a different context. He and Joe Kizzi came into my place of work and gave a talk to nearly 250 young people. It would be fair to say that this perhaps wasn’t Stead’s comfort zone, however, the way in which he acquitted himself was exemplary. Turning up on a day off, explaining he was only too pleased to come into a setting in North London not far from where he’d grown up to try and inspire the next generation. There was an extremely likeable almost embarrassment from him that he found himself in what he clearly was aware was the fortunate position of being a professional player. He couldn’t have had more time for anyone he came into contact with on the day, staying behind for autograph after autograph. Not just a great player, a thoroughly decent chap off the field to go with it.
Stead’s impact on the title run in cannot be under-emphasised. Kabamba had now gone, Ndlovu was new and the pressure was growing by the game. A vital volley at Tamworth earned a hard-fought 1-0 win. Shortly after, he notched in three consecutive games as we began to really come into our stride (4-0 at Rochdale, 3-0 at Oldham and 5-0 against Yeovil).
Whilst he did end up topping our scoring charts, the endeavour and effort in every game was magnificent. Never really and out and out striker, Callum could regularly be found winning the ball in any position on the pitch. A proper team player.
It was fitting that he scored the third and fourth goals against Aldershot in the 4-0 win that crowned us champions. The cherry placed firmly on the cake from one of our most consistent performers. Via a bumpy route, a shot at the football league would justifiably be his.
Now, there may be one or two folk who raised an eyebrow when they saw the word ‘legend,’ next to Callum Stead’s name. It’d be remiss of us to pretend everything in his final year followed the happy, positive story of the previous two.
The trouble arguably began in pre-season. Rumours abounded that he was off to higher reaches before a meaningless friendly ball had been kicked. A no show in our opening pre-season fixture at his old side Hitchin prompting it being good as confirmed in some quarters that he was off to Reading. Whether there was any truth in that as a thing, who knows? It didn’t materialise, anyway.
It didn’t then help that injury stalled the start to his campaign. Brought on for the final half hour of the opening day disappointment against Fleetwood when clearly unfit didn’t set things up too well. He was back in by the third game but it would be fair to say he didn’t quite look himself.
A first football league goal finally came at home to Accrington in early October. More followed in league and cup competitions in the coming weeks and he looked more like the player we’d become so accustom to enjoying.
Perhaps in some ways, Callum was a bit of a victim of his own success. I found it staggering how quickly some decided to write him off as a League 2 player after a not entirely smooth start. 6 goals by Christmas for a mid-table side was by no means a disastrous return.
A dire 0-0 draw at Newport County on Boxing Day in which he featured as a 63rd minute substitute looked like being the not very fitting end of the road. After this game, followed a period of unexplained absence. Rumours again began to circulate and in a post-match interview a month later, Brennan confirmed that Stead was ‘away from the group,’ intimating that he’d said he didn’t want to play for the club again.
As it does, the transfer window slammed shut at the end of January but Stead had not secured a move. We now had the unusual quandary of a contracted, quality player not in the selection picture. Arduous 0-0 draws against Shrewsbury and Cheltenham around this time arguably cried out for Stead’s contribution.
With Dean Brennan, it tends to be quite cut and dry. You’re in or you’re out. I wouldn’t say he has the reputation as a forgiving man. However, it was interesting to see pride, grudges and anything else put aside on a cold Tuesday night at Accrington in late February. Following a Sunday morning “reset,” after a walloping at Colchester United, Stead was in from the cold and out of nowhere, started in a 1-0 win at The Crown Ground, just shy of 2 months since his last game.
After this unpleasant hiatus, Stead was back and remarkably stayed ever present until the season’s end. Form for the team was inconsistent until late March before a phenomenal run almost saw us sneak a playoff berth. Stead was back amongst the goals on Easter Monday at Fleetwood and got another in a win over Barrow the following Saturday.
To highlight his contribution as more than just a goal scorer, his performance in a superb 2-1 win at Notts County sticks in the memory. Stead was everywhere that afternoon. An assist for the winner (though it was maybe a shot itself, not important) but it was the forty yard sprint back to make a sliding tackle in our own half, win the ball and charge forward again in the dying minutes that really epitomised what his Barnet career was about.
Of course, we can’t sign off without acknowledging his final game at The Hive for Barnet. Barnet 6-2 Gillingham - 5 goals for Callum Stead. It really was a remarkable afternoon as the records tumbled with each time the ball hit the net. The first Barnet player to score 5 in a game since the 1960s. His name written in folklore and for me, legend.
Apparently the club did try and make an offer to keep him but you get the sense his mind was made up already. He’d come in on smaller wages given where he’d arrived from and subsequently was perhaps always a way down the earning order, which given his contribution, could understandably cause frustration.
Not too far off a 1 in 2 goal record despite not being an out and out centre forward. It’ll be interesting to see how he manages the step up to League 1 at Cambridge. Having come back and had a deserved, happier ending than it looked likely to his time with us, it seems to me you can only wish him well. Crisp packets of Cambridge, beware.
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