George Sparrow began the 1923/24 season on fire. He scored a hat trick in a 5-1 win over UxbridgeTown in a pre season friendly and just carried on from there to easily surpass his record the previous season of 30 goals in one season.
However, Sparrow missed the opening Athenian League game of the season, but the side included a new face, Billy Lane, who arrived at Underhill from Tottenham, via Summerstown. Lane scored in a 3-1 win at Underhill against his old club, Summerstown; Packham and Beale scoring the other two goals. The Barnet side was; L Standish, F Fletcher, F Garrett, S Chandler, W Allen, G Meadows, G Deeks, F Packham, S Cochrane, W Lane, F Beale. Packham was a former Finchley player who joined the club the previous season and finished the season with 11 goals. Beale too had come into the side in the latter half of 1922/23. Freddie Garrett came in to the team at the beginning of the previous season and became a first team regular and stalwart of the club right through into the 1930’s.
The following Saturday, Barnet were at home to Apsley, a Herts County League side in an extra preliminary round of the FA Cup and, as expected, won easily, going though 8-0 with Lane scoring four, Sparrow 2, Packham 1 and a goal by new player, S Cochrane, who had impressed in trial matches for the club. Barnet then hammered Sutton United 4-0 at Underhill in the Athenian League to make it two wins in two in the league.
More progress was made in the FA Cup with a preliminary round win at home to Leavesden. George Sparrow, Packham and new winger, W Ballard, scoring in a 3-0 victory. This was followed by a 4-0 away win at Arlesey in the preliminary round of the FA Amateur Cup, Sparrow scoring twice, before Luton Frickers were dfeated 2-0 at Underhill in the first qualifying round of the FA Cup
Most of the early part of the season was given over to cup fixtures with Barnet progressing through the qualifyring rounds of the FA Amatuer Cup. After defeating Arlesey, Barnet travelled to Edmonton in the 1st qualifying round and won 3-1 with Lane scoring twice and then knocked out local rivals, Enfield 4-0 in the 2nd qualifying round, Sparrow and new striker, A Rogers scoring two goals each. The victory at Enfield was revenge for the FA Cup defeat at Enfield just days before when Barnet lost 4-2 after extra time, having drawn 1-1 at Underhill on the Saturday. Billy Lane left after the cup defeat at Enfield joining the Spurs’ nursery team, Northfleet United. Lane will be the next player to feature in Barnet Mad’s new ‘Stars of the Athenian League’ series.
Barnet also progressed in the London Senior Cup beating HaysWharf 5-0 at Underhill in a third qualifying round match with Sparrow scoring twice and Rogers grabbing a hat trick. In the next round, Metropolitan Police visited Underhill and went down 5-3, Sparrow scoring twice. Barnet also progressed in the Middlesex County Cup too, defeating Harrow Weald 10-2 at Underhill, Sparrow getting five and Rogers a hat trick. Rogers form helped to make up for the loss of Billy Lane.
Meanwhile, in the FA Amateur Cup, Barnet knocked out Hitchin Blue Cross, 4-2 at Underhill in the 3rd qualifying round, Sparrow scoring twice, George Deeks and new striker, E Ashby grabbing a goal each. George Sparrow scored the only goal of a 1-0 home win over Wood Green Town in the 5th and last of the qualifying rounds.
The Athenian League took second place during much of the latter part of the year and Barnet only played two league games; drawing 2-2 at home to Southall, Sparrow and Rogers scoring, and going down 2-0 at Sutton United, their first league defeat of the season.
After a 4-1 away win at Hertford Town, a Spartan League club, in the semi-final of the Herts Charity Cup, Sparrow scoring twice with one goal each for Ashby and Rogers, Barnet returned to league football with a 4-2 home win over Barking, Sparrow grabbing a hat trick. A 2-0 home win over Wood Green Town in the 1st round proper of the London Senior Cup ended the year. The goals were scored by George Deeks and George Hughes, who played in a full back partnership in that match with Freddie Garrett, one that would last for much of the next ten years. Barnet finished the year in 9th place in the league with 7 points from 5 matches. However, they had a number of games in hand on all the teams above them, including the leaders, Bromley who had 18 points from 13 games.
The new year started with a 1st round proper win in the FA Amateur Cup, Barnet defeating Chesham United at Underhill. George Sparrow scored twice, with Hughes and Deeks scoring once. Sparrow’s second goal was his 32nd of the season, breaking the Barnet scoring record, which Alf Jennings, who scored 31 goals in the 1920/21 season, had previously held.
However, Barnet’s cup progress in three tournaments was to run aground in the space of less than a month. Firstly, Barnet were held to a 4-4 draw at home to Isthmian League, Ilford in the 1st round proper of the London senior Cup, then they lost 3-1 away at Bournemouth in the 2nd round of the FA Amateur Cup, before a humiliating 4-1 away defeat to Savoy Hotel of the London League Division Two saw them crash out of the Middlesex Senior Cup. Finally, they lost 1-0 in the London Senior Cup replay at Ilford. Essentially, Barnet’s cup hopes were pretty much over for the season.
Which meant that they could now, as they say, concentrate on the league, though results were inconsistent. George Sparrow scored a hat trick in a fine 4-1 home win over champions, Bromley and Barnet also won 4-1 at home to Windsor & Eton and 2-1 away at struggling, Enfield. However, there were also defeats at Kingstonian, Redhill, and Southall, leaving Barnet in 9th place with 14 points from 10 matches. Due to being involve din so many cup tournaments earlier in the season, they were also playing ‘catch up’, which could mean 3 or more games in a week. A 3-0 home win over Enfield, with Packham scoring twice and Sparrow once, raised spirits but Barnet took just one point from their next three matches which included a 3-0 defeat at Luton Clarence, who were bottom of the table.
However, things picked up from therein with Barnet winning four of their next five league games which included a revenge win at home to Luton Clarence, Barnet winning 10-0, with Sparrow getting his second five goal haul of the season. A slightly disappointing end to the season saw Barnet draw twice before losing 2-1 at Kingstonian on the last day of the league season. Kingstonian ended the season as champions; Barnet finished a respectable 4th, their best position in the league since 1920. They finished the season rather flatly losing 3-0 at home to Isthmian League champions, St Albans in the final of the Herts Charity Cup.
George Sparrow finished the season as top scorer with a record 46 goals, with A Rogers scoring 17, George Deeks 12 and Billy Lane 10.