In this part of the Barnet In The FA Cup series, I will be looking at the first period when the Bees were in the Football League, having won promotion from the Conference in 1991.
In the first league season, Barnet reached the 3rd round of the FA Cup again, defeating Tiverton Town and Enfield in the first two rounds before going down 3-1 at Charlton Athletic.
Now they were a league side, Barnet did not have to go through the qualifying rounds and entered at the 1st round. In 1992-93, Barnet were promoted to the 3rd division, but in the FA Cup they were knocked out at the first stage, losing 2-1 at home to Bournemouth after drawing the first match at Dean Court.
The off the pitch financial problems that lead to most of the first team squad and manager, Barry Fry leaving following promotion nearly led to the club folding and indeed they may have done so but for their good fortune in getting drawn at home to Premiership club, Chelsea when they reached the 3rd round again having disposed of non-league sides, Carshalton Athletic and Crawley Town in the earlier rounds.
Barnet chose to play their home tie at Stamford Bridge in order to maximise revenue and for safety reasons and shocked Chelsea by holding them to a goalless draw. Indeed, Bees' striker, Kelly Haag, came close to winning it for the Bees. Chelsea won the replay 4-0 against a gallant Barnet side, but the tie have saved the club's future, even though the club were relegated back to the 4th division at the end of the season. The Barnet side against Chelsea was; Phillips, Alexander, Mutchell, Newson, Walker, Wilson, Hoddle, Scott, Lynch, Close, Haag.
That season was very much the highlight of this period as far as the FA Cup was concerned. The next two seasons, Barnet were knocked out both times in the first round by Conference club, Woking and in 1996-97 after knocking out Farnborough Town following a replay, Barnet lost to Wycombe Wanderers again following a replay.
In the next three seasons, the club went out at the 1st round stage to Watford by 2-1 in 1997-98, non-league Hednesford Town by 3-1 in 1998-99 and to Burnley by 1-0 in 1999-2000. In 2000-01, Barnet came within five minutes of going out at home to tiny Hampton & Redbridge. Losing 1-0 they snatched an undeserved win with goals from Tony Richards and Darren Currie. In the following round they went down 2-1 at Walsall and at the end of the season they finished bottom of the league and were relegated back to the Conference.
In the last part of this series, I will be looking at the period of Barnet's four year stay in the Conference and the return to the league in 2005 and bringing the Bees' FA Cup history right up to date.