After finishing a creditable fourth the previous season, Barnet had high hopes that they could compete for their first ever Athenian League title, especially with George Sparrow spearheading the attack. Sparrow finished 1923/24 with a record 46 goals and Barnet would have hoped for more of the same in the new season.
However, Barnet got off to a terrible start to the season losing 5-1 away at Summerstown though the club were without a number of key players such as Sparrow, rogers & Jordan, who had left the club for business reasons. Sparrow and full back, Fletcher were playing for the Athenian League against last season’s champions, Kingstonian.
Barnet gained quick revenge over Summerstown, winning the return fixture 2-0 at Underhill, Sparrow scoring both goals. Sparrow also scored to give Barnet a point in the 1-1 home draw with Sutton United before they embarked on their FA Cup journey with a 5-0 home win over Edmonton in the Preliminary Round, George Meadows scoring four.
Following a 1-0 defeat at champions, Kingstonian, Barnet progressed through the 1st qualifying round of the FA Cup winning 4-2 away at Wood Green Town, A Rogers scoring all four goals.
Barnet strengthened their squad by signing Wales schoolboy international, Taffy O’Callaghan on loan from Tottenham Hotspur where he was seen as a highly promising young player. O’Callaghan made his Barnet debut in a friendly against Tottenham at Underhill. Barnet won 3-0 with goals from Sparrow, Rogers & O’Callaghan. Former Barnet star, Alf Jennings played for Tottenham as well another former Barnet player, Billy Lane. The Barnet side was; Burr, Fletcher, Garrett, Meadows, Hughes, Groves, Deeks, Rogers, Sparrow, O’Callaghan, Edwards.
Goals from Edwards and Deeks saw Barnet through the 2nd qualifying round of the FA Cup with a 2-1 home win over Letchworth Town, though they were not performing particularly well in the league. A 2-2 draw at Windsor & Eton gave them just 4 points from 5 games; 8th in the league. George Sparrow got both goals in what turned out to be the last league game until Christmas Day.
For now, it was all about concentrating on the cup tournaments. Goals from George Deeks and Taffy O’Callaghan were enough for a 2-2 draw at Hampstead Town in the 3rd qualifying round of the FA Cup and 2 goals from Rogers and one from Sparrow saw Barnet go through in the replay at Underhill, Barnet winning 3-2.
Meanwhile, Barnet were progressing well in the Senior Cup tournaments. In the London Senior Cup, Barnet won 2-1 away at Great Eastern (Romford) in the 3rd qualifying round and then, in the 4th round, hammered Walthamstow Grange 7-0 away from home, Sparrow scoring four, Rogers, Edwards and O’Callaghan one apiece. In the 5th round, Bostall Heath, a club who played in Acton, were the visitors and Barnet won 5-3 with Sparrow and Edwards scoring twice and Rogers once. Sparrow got a knock in that game. In the Middlesex Senior Cup, Barnet won 6-0 away at Great Western Railway, O’Callaghan and Sparrow scoring twice.
Back in the FA Cup and Barnet won a 4th qualifying round tie at home to Guildford United, 3-0 with two more goals from Sparrow and one from O’Callaghan. Guildford United were a Southern League side and therefore professional and Barnet were the only southern amateur team to beat a professional side in that year’s cup competition and were the only Athenian League club left in the FA Cup. In the 5th qualifying round, Leyton were dispatched 2-0, Sparrow and Rogers scoring the goals that took them through to the 1st round proper, where they were drawn to play another professional club, Exeter City at St James’ Park. However, this time Barnet were facing a Football League side who played in Division 3 South. Barnet were unlucky when with the score still 0-0, Taffy O’Callaghan had what appeared to be a perfectly good goal disallowed. In the end, Exeter were too strong for the Athenian League club and ran out 3-0 winners and Barnet’s FA Cup adventure was over for that season. The Barnet side was; Burr, Fletcher, Garret, Hughes, Allen, Meadows, Deeks, O’Callaghan, Sparrow, Rogers, Edwards.
At Christmas, it was, finally, back to the business of collecting league points, but on Christmas Day, Barnet crashed 7-1 away at fellow strugglers, Enfield. Sparrow had injured his knee in the win over Bostall Heath in the London Senior Cup and he also missed the boxing day league clash with Barking at Underhill, but Edwards scored the only goal of the game to give Barnet two much needed points.
At the end of 1924, Barnet were still in the London and Middlesex Senior Cups and had the FA Amateur Cup to look forward too, but in the Athenian League, Barnet were struggling in 12th place with just 6 points from 7 matches and had just West Norwood and Uxbridge below them in the league.
The first two months 0f 1925 were almost exclusively given over to cup matches. Barnet began their FA Amateur Cup journey with a 2-0 win away at Botwell Mission, later to become Hayes, in the 1st round. Sparrow and O’Callaghan scored the goals and Sparrow was on target again as Barnet defeated Isthmian League, Ilford 2-1 at Underhill in the London Senior Cup. In the second round of the FA Amateur Cup, Barnet met Staines Lagonda, an early incarnation of the present Staines Town and won 2-0 at Underhill, A Rogers scoring both goals in a game where Barnet were awarded three penalties and missed them all; Sparrow two and Rogers one.
Both Sparrow and Rogers scored in the 6-1 win over fellow Athenian League club, Uxbridge Town at Underhill in the 2nd round of the Middlesex Senior Cup, Sparrow grabbing a hat trick, Rogers two and George Meadows the other.
A brief interlude of league football saw Barnet drew 1-1 at Cheshunt and Barnet were now 2nd from bottom with 7 points from 8 games but had 6 games in hand over Uxbridge who were a point ahead.
Barnet then crashed out of the London Senior cup in the 2nd round, losing 1-0 at Isthmian League, Clapton, the goal coming from H Miller, a former Barnet player. As Clapton were strong contenders for the Isthmian League title, this was quite a creditable performance. However, Barnet progressed past the 3rd round of the FA Amateur Cup with an impressive 5-2 win away at Oxford City, also from the Isthmian League, but a club near the bottom of the table. O’Callaghan scored twice and there were goals also from Rogers, Sparrow and Edwards.
The next two matches saw Barnet’s season fall apart somewhat as first they were beaten 4-0 at home by Hampstead Town in the 3rd round of the Middlesex Senior Cup and the following Saturday they lost 2-1 to St Albans City, another strong Isthmian League side at Underhill after extra time. Rogers was the Barnet scorer.
Barnet gained some consolation with a 1-0 win over Hampstead in the opening round of the Middlesex Charity Cup; Taffy O’Callaghan scoring. The cup defeats did at least mean that Barnet could get back to league football at the beginning of March and two victories, home and away against Bromley followed, Sparrow scoring in both before going down 6-0 away to eventual champions, Redhill. Three more defeats followed; home to Redhill and home and away to West Norwood who ended the season bottom of the table. Following the defeat at West Norwood, Barnet slumped to the bottom of the Athenian League table.
Meanwhile, on 21st March, George Sparrow, instead of playing for Barnet at West Norwood in the Athenian League, was playing at Plymouth in his first international appearamce for the England amateur side against Wales. England won the match 2-1 and Sparrow was called a 'skilful and dashing leader' by the Sunday Times, who also commented that he 'had bad luck with many shots'. Sparrow was the first Barnet player to be called up to play for England.
However, this was followed by a six game unbeaten run beginning with a 4-0 home win over Cheshunt, O’Callaghan scoring twice, which took Barnet off the bottom of the table and included a 2-0 win away at Sutton United and home wins over Uxbridge (5-1) and Southall (2-0), the other two games ending in draws. The run guaranteed that Barnet would not finish near the bottom of the table but the run in to the season was disappointing with only two wins, away at Southall and Uxbridge (O’Callaghan scoring all three goals in a 3-1 win) in the last 6 games. Somewhat surprisingly, Barnet finished as high as 6th.
Barnet did win one piece of silverware, the Middlesex Charity Cup. In the semi-final they defeated Staines Town, who had changed their name from Staines Lagonda since Barnet’s meeting with them earlier in the season! George Sparrow scored four in a 5-0 win, A Rogers scoring the other goal. In the final, played at Brentford’s Griffin Park, Barnet defeated Uxbridge Town for the fourth time that season, winning 3-2 after extra time, Taffy O’Callaghan scoring twice and Leslie Sutton once. The Barnet side was; Burr, Fletcher, Garrett, Hughes, Starey, Meadows, Deeks, O’Callaghan, Sparrow, Rogers, Sutton.
George Sparrow was, once again, Barnet’s leading scorer for the season with 33 goals, but Taffy O’Callaghan and A Rogers weighed in with 23 goals apiece to greatly help the cause.