Following the merger of Barnet Alston and Barnet FC (formerly Barnet Avenue) during the summer of 1912, the new club, Barnet & Alston FC took their place in the newly formed Athenian League. The club were to play at Barnet Alston’s ground, Underhill and it is fair to say that Alston players, by and large, formed most of the new club’s first team eleven in the new league, though Barnet FC forwards such as H.E. Smith and Percy Chandler were to play an important part in the performance of Barnet & Alston. However, the new club's colours were violet and black which were Avenue colours.
The other new clubs that were founder members of the new league were; Barking, Catford (Southend), Chelmsford, Chesham Town, Enfield, Finchley, Grays Athletic, Romford Town and Tufnell Park. Many of these clubs are still around today, at least in some form. Finchley merged with Wingate FC to become Wingate & Finchley and still play in Finchley. TufnellPark have been through several incarnations and exist now as Haringey Borough. CheshamTown changed their name to Chesham United. Catford (Southend) are the only club that do not still exist.
Barnet & Alston’s first game was actually on the 7th September 1912 in the Middlesex & District Premier League, a competition that Barnet Alston FC had competed in since 1908. The match was against Waltham at Underhill and B&A won 4-0 with goals from AG Howell, Webb Richardson, H E Smith and Logger Mason.
Barnet’s first ever Athenian League game,a fortnight later, was a goalless draw at Tufnell Park, who played at Campdale Road in Holloway, which still exists today as Tufnell Park Playing Fields. The Barnet side on that historic occasion was; Mitchell, Rowbery, Saggers, Howell, Maydell, Allen, Richardson, Chandler, Mason, Smith, Ridley. The left half, Walter Allen was to feature in Barnet teams right through into the middle of the 1920’s. In that opening game, Barnet played with 10 men for an hour after Maydell was injured and Mitchell saved a penalty for B&A.
A week later, Barnet & Alston progressed through the Preliminary Round of the FA Cup with a 2-0 home win over Luton Crusaders with goals from Mason & Chandler and a fortnight after that they beat another club from the same town, Luton Reliance in the First Qualifying Round at Underhill, winning 5-2 with two goals from Mason and one apiece from Richardson, Burroughs and Chandler. Burroughs was another former ‘Avenue’ player.
B&A’s first Athenian League victory came on 26th October when they won 3-1 away at Barking with Ridley scored twice and Smith once. Sadly the win ended up being voided as Barking subsequently withdrew from the Athenian League. The following Saturday, B&A went out of the FA Cup losing 2-0 at home to Tufnell Park in the 2nd Qualifying Round.
Two goals from Ridley and one from Mason saw Barnet comfortably through the third round of the London Senior Cup with a 3-0 home win over the 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards and the club gained their first ‘official’ victory in the Athenian League by beating Grays Athletic 1-0 at Underhill, Smith getting the winning goal. It was a feature though of the early Athenian League seasons that many of the league games were played later in the season as much of the earlier part was filled by cup competitions.
B&A progressed through the 4th round of the London senior Cup with a 3-0 home win over WoodGreenTown, who also played in the Middlesex & District League. Smith scored twice and Ridley once. The following Saturday, Enfield were defeated in the Athenian League at Underhill with Ridley scoring twice and Teddy Harrison once in a 3-2 win.
B&A were undefeated in the Athenian League at this point, but on Christmas Day they lost 2-0 away at Finchley who played at Fallow Corner. However, three days later they hammered Chelmsford 6-2 at Underhill with Smith and Richardson scoring twice and Ridley and Mason the others. At the end of 1912, Barnet & Alston were through to the 5th round of the London Senior Cup, waiting to start their FA Amateur Cup campaign and 4th in the Athenian League table with 8 points from 6 games, 4 points behind the leaders, TufnellPark but with 4 games in hand. A very satisfactory first half of the season for the new club.
The new year started with three consecutive victories in cup competitions. In the FA Amateur Cup 1st round, Maidenhead Norfolkians were defeated 3-0 at Underhill with two goals from Smith and one from Webb Richardson and the following week, B&A progressed through to the 1st round proper of the London Senior Cup by putting out Walthamstow Grange, who played in the London League, by 3-1 with goals from Wright, Maydell and Seabrook, who scored the Barnet Alston goal against Crystal Palace in the opening game at Underhill in September 1907. The club came through a tricky 2nd round Amateur Cup game at home to Southall of the Great Western Suburban League, winning 5-3.
Back in the Athenian League, B&A crashed to their second defeat losing 4-1 at CheshamTown and the following Saturday went out of the London Senior Cup losing 2-1 at home to Bromley of the Isthmian League. Webb Richardson scored for the Bees. Two weeks later, Clapton put them out of the FA Amateur Cup in the 3rd round with the Isthmian League club winning 3-0.
But Barnet & Alston could still think in terms of winning the Athenian League and two wins in March kept them in contention. First a 1-0 home win over neighbours, Finchley and then a 3-0 win at Enfield, with goals from Ridley, Smith and AG Howell pushed B&A up to 4th in the table with 12 points from 9 games, just 3 points behind leaders, Catford Southend but with a game in hand.
At the end of March, a visit from the league leaders ended in a 2-2 draw with Ridley scoring both goals and five days later won 3-0 away at struggling RomfordTown. Two days later came another crunch match away at Catford Southend, but despite goals from Smith & Ridley, Barnet & Alston lost 3-2 and following this defeat, their chance of the title in their first season largely disappeared, particularly as they then lost 2-1 away at Chelmsford.
Barnet & Alston won their last three matches against Chesham, Grays and Romford without conceding a goal and ended the season in a very creditable 2nd place in the Athenian League table just edging out Tufnell Park on goal average with Finchley finishing a point behind in 4th place. The end of the season 7-0 win over bottom club, Romford Town contributed greatly to B&A finishing as runners up to Catford Southend in that inaugural Athenian League season. It would be many years before the club would finish as high as that again.