After two disappointing seasons in the Alliance Premier League, Barnet were hoping that the 1981-82 season would see an upswing in their fortunes. One of the features of the previous two seasons was a shortage of goals and Barnes would be hoping to put this right in the new season.
Two new strikers were signed. Peter Johnson, a former Orient and Crystal Palace player who had played over 100 games for Bournemouth in the league, was signed from Weymouth, while former Bee, Steve Ragan re-joined the club. Two players were picked up from Arsenal, Mike Pittaway and Ritchie Powling, while full Back, Chris Kinnear was signed from Maidstone. Another striker, Gary French returned to the club as well after leaving for personal reasons.
However, as the season got under way it seemed that the task of scoring goals fell mainly on Colin Barnes who had joined the Bees midway through the previous season. Barnes it was that scored Barnet's first goal of the season in the opening match at home to Runcorn. Unfortunately, Barnet lost the game 3-1 and things didn't get much better as the Bees got off to an awful start to the season.
By midway though October, Barnet had played 13 games and had only taken 7 points, all of them from draws. Finally on October 17th, in front of 675 fans, Barnet defeated Kettering Town 2-1 at Underhill, Colin Barnes and Peter Johnson scoring. It was Johnson's first goal for the club. Unfortunately, it didn't prove to be the catalyst for a good run for the Bees as they promptly went and lost the next four league games and had just 10 points after 18 matches. Powling, who had been brought in to run the midfield had spent most of the time out through injury and only played 5 games for the club. Johnson, who had been Barry Fry's big hope as a goal scorer, was suspended and had asked for a transfer and at any rate only managed that one goal in his 18 appearnces for the club. Ragan too had scored just one goal, in a 1-1 draw at Trowbridge Town.
At least Barnet were able to progress in the FA Cup. Goals from Gary Sargent and Colin Barnes gave them a 2-0 win over Corinthian Casuals in the 4th qualifying round and they then beat Harlow Town 1-0 in a replayed 1st round tie at Underhill, Sargent scoring again. In the 2nd round, goals from Steve Foody and Colin Barnes saw off Wycombe Wanderers at Underhill in a 2-0 win in front of 2,015 the highest gate of the season up then. In the FA Trophy, Barnet went down 2-1 at Hendon, Colin Barnes scoring for the Bees.
Barry Fry brought in another new striker, Danny Westwood from Gillingham for £2,000 and signed England Amateur international, John Watson from Scarborough, on loan. By November, Barnet had slumped to 2nd from bottom with only the very poor, AP Leamington beneath them and looked as though they may well go down.
However, things did start to improve then. Another struggling side, Dartford were beaten 2-0 at Underhill at the end of November, Gary Sargent and Steve Robinson scoring and this was followed by Barnet's first away win of the season, another 2-0 win, this time at Weymouth, Russell Townsend and John Watson scoring. It was Watson's first goal for the club.
Two wins in a row!!! Barnet then got a very useful point at high flying neighbours, Enfield before their 3rd round FA Cup date with First Division league club, Brighton & Hove Albion. Brighton were obvious favourites to win the game, but Barnet gave the First Division club a scare, more than holding their own in front of a crowd of 3842, Barnet's highest crowd of the season. Brighton were managed by Alan Mullery, later to manage Barnet, but were relieved to take the tie back to Brighton after surviving near misses from Colin Barnes and Russell Townsend, while Gary Phillips was outstanding in goal. The Barnet side that day was; Phillips, Robinson, Millett, Campbell, Pearce, Watson, Pittaway, Townsend, Barnes, Sargent, Westwood.
However, it was no surprise when Brighton won the replay, winning 3-1 at the Goldstone Ground. Gary Sargent scored the Barnet goal. Soon after, Brighton signed left back, Graham Pearce, who had been outstanding in both games and he played for Brighton in the 1983 FA Cup Final.
The next home match, against bottom club, AP Leamington, was played on QPR's synthetic turf at Loftus Road due to Underhill's unplayability. It ended in a 0-0 draw. Barnet then won the return fixture 2-0 with goals from Westwood and Watson and then won 3-2 at Gravesend; Townsend, Westwood and Barnes scoring. Barnet had taken 10 points from 6 matches with 4 wins and 2 defeats and looked as though they were about to climb to safety, but their form started to dip.
After a 1-1 draw at home to Scarborough, Mahoney getting the Barnet goal, Barnet lost 2-1 at Barrow, Colin Barnes scoring. There then followed a little upsurge in form with a goalless draw at home to Trowbridge and a surprise 1-0 win away at Frickley, courtesy of an Alan Campbell goal. But the next five league matches brought only 1 point as Barnet slumped down the table with defeats at home to Bath City and Weymouth and away at Kettering Town and Stafford Rangers and only a goalless draw at home to Yeovil to show for it. By the time Barnet met Telford United at home at the end of March they had fallen into the bottom three and if it stayed that way until the end of the season that would mean relegation for the Bees as three sides went down.
In the meantime, striker, Stewart Atkins, who had inspired Kettering to their 5-2 victory over Kettering at the beginning of March had signed for Barnet for a fee of £3,450 and made his debut at home to Yeovil. But it was another new player, Billy Holmes who scored to give Barnet a vital 3 points at home to Telford United in a 1-0 win for the Bees. That win lifted Barnet out of the bottom three and a week later Stewart Atkins scored his first goal for the Bees to give Barnet an excellent point away at Northwich. But then defeats at league leaders, Runcorn (1-0) and what was basically a reserve Altrincham team (2-0) put Barnet back in trouble again.
Colin Barnes and Stewart Atkins scored in a 2-0 home win over Gravesend on Easter Monday to give Barnet fresh hope of avoiding relegation back to the Southern League and this was followed with a 4-1 win over deadly rivals, Enfield, Foody, Westwood, Atkins and Barnes getting the goals for Barnet. However, defeats at Worcester (3-1) and Telford (3-0) meant that Barnet went into the last day of the season 3rd from bottom and dependent on other sides doing worse than them in order to stay up.
Barnet played Boston United at home knowing that even if they won they might still go down. AP Leamington were already relegated, while Dartford were 2 points below the Bees on 38 points but with a game in hand. Barnet, Kettering and Gravesend were level on 40 points but Barnet had an inferior goal difference to the other to clubs. In the event, Barnet played out a goalless draw with Boston but all the other results went in their favour to keep Barnet up. Dartford lost 4-2 at champions elect, Runcorn and could not catch Barnet even if they won their game in hand. Kettering lost 2-0 at Maidstone and Gravesend lost 3-1 at Barrow which meant that Gravesend went down with Dartford and Leamington, while Kettering stayed up on goal difference and the Bees were safe by one point.
The Barnet side that day was; Phillips, Robinson, Millett, Campbell, Foody, Pittaway, Sargent, Holmes, Barnes, Westwood, Atkins. Sub not used: Townsend.
So once more, Barry Fry's Barnet had managed to survive relegation from the Alliance Premier League, but a record of 17th, 17th and 18th in their 3 APL seasons was hardly impressive.
|
1 |
Runcorn |
42 |
28 |
9 |
5 |
75 |
37 |
93 |
|
2 |
Enfield |
42 |
26 |
8 |
8 |
90 |
46 |
86 |
|
3 |
Telford |
42 |
23 |
8 |
11 |
70 |
51 |
77 |
|
4 |
Worcester |
42 |
19 |
12 |
11 |
70 |
60 |
69 |
|
5 |
Dagenham |
42 |
19 |
12 |
11 |
69 |
51 |
69 |
|
6 |
Northwich |
42 |
20 |
9 |
13 |
56 |
46 |
69 |
|
7 |
Scarborough |
42 |
19 |
11 |
12 |
65 |
52 |
68 |
|
8 |
Barrow |
42 |
18 |
11 |
13 |
59 |
50 |
65 |
|
9 |
Weymouth |
42 |
18 |
9 |
15 |
56 |
47 |
63 |
|
10 |
Boston Utd |
42 |
17 |
11 |
14 |
61 |
57 |
62 |
|
11 |
Altrincham |
42 |
14 |
13 |
15 |
66 |
56 |
55 |
|
12 |
Bath City |
42 |
15 |
10 |
17 |
50 |
57 |
55 |
|
13 |
Yeovil |
42 |
14 |
11 |
17 |
56 |
68 |
53 |
|
14 |
Stafford |
42 |
12 |
16 |
14 |
48 |
47 |
52 |
|
15 |
Frickley |
42 |
14 |
10 |
18 |
47 |
60 |
52 |
|
16 |
Maidstone |
42 |
11 |
15 |
16 |
55 |
57 |
48 |
|
17 |
Trowbridge |
42 |
12 |
11 |
19 |
38 |
54 |
47 |
|
18 |
Barnet |
42 |
9 |
14 |
19 |
36 |
52 |
41 |
|
19 |
Kettering |
42 |
9 |
13 |
20 |
64 |
76 |
40 |
|
20 |
Gravesend |
42 |
10 |
10 |
22 |
51 |
69 |
40 |
|
21 |
Dartford |
42 |
10 |
9 |
23 |
47 |
69 |
39 |
|
22 |
AP Leamington |
42 |
4 |
10 |
28 |
40 |
105 |
22 |