Barnet came into the final game of the season still not certain of their League Two status. A win over already promoted Rochdale would guarantee safety, but anything else and the club would be relying on Grimsby Town failing to win their match, away at Burton Albion.
Bees’ caretaker manager, Paul Fairclough, retained the back four that played at Grimsby the previous weekend despite Ismail Yakubu returning from injury. Yakubu had to be content with a place on the bench. Ed Upson was brought into midfield in place of Albert Jarrett and 16 year old striker, Mauro Vilhete who became the youngest ever Barnet player when he came on as substitute at Blundell Park.
Underhill was nearly full and the home fans were in good voice creating lots of noise which gave the afternoon something of a party atmosphere despite the precarious situation that the Bees had found themselves in.
The Bees got off to a lively start with Mark Hughes going close early on with a header that went just wide. Rochdale’s on loan keeper, Frank Fielding saved well from John O’Flynn when the Bees’ top striker could have perhaps done a bit better. Ahmed Deen then came close with a curling shot from a free kick just outside the box that went just wide.
Albert Adomah was in vibrant mood creating a lot of movement, swapping over from right to left and causing the visitors a lot of problems. Vilhete, too, on his full debut, looked lively with a good touch, while the three man central midfield of Hyde, Hughes and Upson got forward much more than in recent games, giving the strikers more support and Upson, in particular, getting into good shooting positions.
Rochdale looked as though they were already on holiday rarely threatening but Jake Cole had to save smartly from Jason Kennedy. At the other end Albert Adomah and Mauro Vilhete had shots saved by Fielding. Barnet came so close to getting the goal that the fans were looking for when Upson met a fine Adomah cross but saw his header hit the underside of the crossbar and the Rochdale defence was able to clear.
Meanwhile, there was excitement in the Underhill crowd when news filtered through from the Pirelli Stadium that Burton had taken the lead against Grimsby and that excitement really bubbled over when further news told of a second goal for the Brewers. The news was conveyed to the players by the fans chanting that it was ‘2-0 to the Albion’.
HT: Bees 0 Rochdale 0
The second half carried on very much in the same style with the home side in the ascendance. Joe Devera went on a surging run and his solid shot was saved by Fielding. Adomah and Devera combined well throughout the game with Devera over lapping well, a feature of his play not seen for some time. John O’Flynn had another chance after being played in by a superb long pass by Gary Breen. However, the Dale keeper saved well again from the former Cork City man.
News then filtered through that Burton had scored a third and that was the signal for the home fans to start partying. Bees’ youngster Vilhete, who had looked very promising, was then substituted with Albert Jarrett coming on. Upson came close again when his low well struck shot from the edge of the penalty area was cleared off the line by Higginbotham.
O’Flynn and Upson were replaced by Paul Furlong and Nicky Deverdics with about 5 minutes remaining. Almost certainly, it was the last that we will see of O’Flynn in a Barnet shirt.
With just a minute of normal time remaining, Albert Adomah crossed into the penalty area for Paul Furlong to play the ball back to Albert JARRETT and the Bees’ winger hit his shot, via a slight deflection, into the corner of the net past Fielding to make 100% sure that the Bees were staying up.
That was pretty much the end of the action and after three minutes of added time, Barnet had finally won after six defeats on the trot and more importantly, they will be playing League Two football next season.
All in all it was a much better performance than of late, probably since the win at home to Chesterfield last month. Fairclough got the players getting the ball on the ground and using the three man midfield to create opportunities and variation, not just playing the inevitable ball out to the wide players, which has been a feature under Ian Hendon. It is just a shame that the improvement had to come so late.
Attention will now turn to deciding on a new manager and possibly, the re-building of the playing squad. It seems fairly certain now that Albert Adomah and John O’Flynn will be going as their contracts are up and if that is the case then I’m sure all Bees’ fans will wish them well and say a big thank you for all they’ve done in their time at Underhill. Meanwhile, it’s quite likely that both Paul Furlong and Gary Breen will call it a day and there are also a number of other players out of contract, so it could be that there will be a lot of comings and goings around Underhill this summer.
Still for the moment, it was a great day out for Bees’ fans who were treated after the game with the players, and Paul Fairclough, doing a ‘lap of honour’ and it was nice to see Yannick Bolasie, who was such a favourite here during his two loan spells with the Bees, join the players as they waved to the fans.
After all the worry of the last few weeks, it was a relief to be able to look forward to next season knowing that we weren’t going to be back in the Conference. Commiserations to Grimsby and their fans and we hope that they can look forward to better things in the future. For the bees’ fans, they’ll be hoping for better things next season.
Barnet Mad Man of the Match: Albert Adomah
FT: Bees 1 Rochdale 0
Barnet: Cole; Devera, Breen, Gillet, Deen; Adomah, Hyde, Hughes, Upson (Deverdics 81); Vilhete (Jarrett 56), O’Flynn (Furlong 83).
Rochdale: Fielding: Stanton, McArdle, Dawson, Holness; Kennedy, Jones, Thompson, Taylor (Obadeyi 63); Higginbotham, O’Grady (Gray 63).
Att: 4638