A look back at season 2008/09

Last updated : 12 June 2009 By Jaybee

Barnet entered March in probably better spirits than at any time in the season. A first win for Ian Hendon at home to Bradford City and an excellent draw at Chesterfield had lifted the Bees up to 20th in the table, 6 points above the relegation zone and with a game in hand.

The first week in March offered Barnet the chance to pull away a little from the bottom of the table with two home fixtures against Rochdale and Chester. Barnet gave another fine performance against promotion chasing Rochdale with Yannick Bolasie scoring a late winner after the visitors had drawn level following John O'Flynn's first half opener. The prolific Irish striker followed this up with two more at home to relegation rivals, Chester on the Saturday taking him up to 15 goals in just 29 starts. Paul Furlong also scored for the Bees as they won 3-1. This match saw the Barnet debut of goalkeeper, Jake Cole signed on loan from QPR.

The six points gained from those two wins took Barnet up a place to 19th and they were now 8 points above Bournemouth, in 23rd place, and had a game in hand. The following Tuesday, Barnet traveled to League Two leaders, Brentford and completely outplayed their hosts, giving one of their finest performances of the season and somehow losing 1-0. On the Saturday, Morecambe completed a disappointing week for the Bees winning 2-1 at Christie Park despite John O'Flynn's 16th goal of the season. The two defeats saw Barnet drop a place in the table and they were now just 6 points above the team in 23rd place, who were now Grimsby Town.

Barnet picked themselves up following these two away defeats with a hard fought 3-2 home win over Lincoln City, John O'Flynn's two goals giving him 18 for the season. Albert Adomah scored the other Barnet goal. At last Barnet were winning games regularly. This was their 4th win in 7 matches, giving them 13 points during this period, by far the best of the season. Winning rather than drawing meant that the Bees could now afford the odd slip up and that happened with their first home defeat of the year against Darlington, who won 1-0. Barnet recovered to take an excellent away point at Wycombe with Paul Furlong scoring in a 1-1 draw on the last day of the month.

Barnet had won three games in March and taken 10 points from 7 matches, their best run of the season. They finished the month in 20th place, 7 points above Chester in 23rd place with a game in hand. As the season entered its final run in, Barnet needed just a few more wins to make themselves completely safe.