Barnet In The Athenian League: 1926/27

Last updated : 10 August 2014 By Jaybee

Barnet started the season in fine style, defeating Cheshunt 7-2 in the opening round of the Herts Charity Cup at Underhill. G Richardson, signed from Chatham in the summer, scored a hat trick on his debut and Arthur Snaith and W Rogers scored two apiece. The Barnet line up was; Goodwin, Hughes, Garrett, Sutton, Casey, Meadows, Deeks, Richardson, Snaith, Rogers, Aldous. George Sparrow was on tour with Middlesex Wanderers in Switzerland.

However, Barnet’s early Athenian League form was poor with just one point gained from the opening four games. The first league win of the season came at home to West Norwood as Barnet won 4-0 with two goals from Rogers scoring twice.

Barnet lost their next three games; at Barking and Redhill in the league and also went down 2-1 at home to Football League club, QPR in the first round of the London Challenge Cup. They returned to winning ways with a 5-2 home win over Bromley with Les Sutton scoring twice and Sparrow grabbing a hat trick, but generally their league form was poor and they won only one of their next four games; a 1-0 home win over Summerstown with J Ashby, who returned to the club in the summer, scoring the winner for Barnet.

Having reached the 1st round of the FA Cup the previous season, Barnet opened their FA Cup campaign at home to Spartan League, Slough Town in the 4th qualifying round and won 3-1 with Sparrow scoring twice and winger, W Aldous scoring the other goal.

Two weeks later, Barnet travelled to the Goldstone Ground, Brighton, a club in the Third Division South of the Football League and lost 3-0. Brighton were top of their division and even had two international players in their reserve team who couldn’t get in their first team and the club had not lost since the opening day of the season. They had defeated nearest rivals in the league, Bristol City 3-0 the Saturday before and they repeated that score against Barnet. The Barnet side for this match was; Goodwin, Fletcher, F Garrett, Sutton, Casey, Meadows, Drew, Snaith, Sparrow, J Garrett, Aldous.

Despite losing in the cup, Barnet’s league form improved as they gained back to back wins at home to Windsor & Eton, winning 4-1 and away at Summerstown where a last minute goal bt Sparrow gave Barnet a 1-0 win. The two wins took Barnet up to 4th in the table, though they were 12 points below leaders, Southall who were 10 points clear at the top.

After a 2-1 defeat at Sutton United, Barnet bounced back with a 2-0 home win on Christmas Day over Hampstead with goals from Sparrow and Billy Lane, back for a short loan spell from Tottenham.  The return, at Underhill, ended in a 1-1 draw on Boxing Day leaving Barnet 4th but still 12 points behind Southall.      

New Year’s Day saw Barnet begin their FA Amateur Cup campaign with a home 1st round tie with Sussex League, Eastbourne Old Comrades, Barnet winning 3-0. The following Saturday, Barnet went out of the London Senior Cup losing 3-2 at home to Isthmian League, Dulwich Hamlet in front of about 2,500 fans.

Next up was a trip to Clarence Park to meet another Isthmian League club, St Albans City who hammered Barnet 6-1. Only 450 fans saw Barnet defeat Hanwell Town 9-4 in the opening round of the Middlesex Senior Cup at Underhill the following Saturday with hat tricks for Sparrow and inside left, Davies.

At the end of January, Barnet lost 4-0 away at well placed, Kingstonian in the league and a fortnight later lost 2-1 at home to league leaders, Southall in the 2nd round of the Middlesex Senior Cup leavi8ng Barnet little left to play for that season. A Rogers, a regular goalscorer for Barnet in recent seasons was in the Southall team having moved to West London recently.

A 2-1 win at home to Uxbridge Town in the league kept Barnet in 4th place but now 13 points behind Southall, who appeared to be running away with the title. This was followed by a 5-2 win away at rivals, Enfield in the 1st round of the Middlesex Charity Cup. Barnet took just two points from their next three league games as they slipped to 8th in the table, though they did win 12-2 over Wealdstone in the semi-final of the Middlesex Charity Cup, Davies scoring 5 and Sparrow 4.

Barnet had a good end to the league season with 3 wins out of the last four games, winning 5-3 away at Cheshunt, 4-0 in the return fixture at Underhill and by the same score at home to Barking. New inside forward, Cousins scored a hat trick in the win over Barking.

At Easter, Barnet toured the Netherlands and opened with a friendly match against a Dutch Olympic XI, losing 5-4 with two goals from Cousins and one apiece for Sparrow and Davies. This was a warm up match for the Dordrecht Tournament. In the 1st round, Barnet beat BVV 5-2 with Sparrow and Cousins scoring twice and Davies getting one. Barnet then defeated Wilhelmina 6-0 in the semi-final with Sparrow grabbing a hat trick, Snaith 2 and Aldous 1. However, Barnet lost in the final to Excelsior, two Sparrow goals not enough to stop them going down 3-2.

Barnet finished the season with a 3-3 draw at Griffin Park against Hampstead in the final of the Middlesex Charity Cup and the two clubs agreed to share the trophy for half a season each. Barnet then finally succeeded in lifting a trophy totally in their own right that season after defeating St Albans 4-1 after extra time in the final of the Herts Charity Cup at Underhill with Cousins scoring twice and Aldous and Sparrow one apiece. At least it was some revenge for the 6-1 hammering earlier in the season in the Amateur Cup. Barnet finished 7th in the league, losing their last league game 2-1 away at Windsor & Eton.  

George Sparrow was once again Barnet’s leading scorer with 42 goals, Davies scored 21 and Cousins 15. The following season would see the arrival of another Barnet legend, Arthur Morris who would rival and eventually even outdo George Sparrow in goal scoring feats for the club.