Former Barnet keeper, Ross Flitney has linked up with former Barnet team mates, Andy Hessenthaler and Adam Birchall at Dover Athletic. Flitney joined Barnet from Fulham in the summer of 2005 following Barnet’s promotion from the Nationwide Conference. Flitney was signed to be a replacement for Scott Tynan who had originally refused to sign a new contract, but eventually stayed at Underhill.
This meant that Flitney started at Underhill as the number 2 goalkeeper. He made his Bees’ debut in the 4-2 Carling Cup win at Bristol City in August 2005 and he is mostly remembered for being sent off after just a few minutes in the 3rd round Carling Cup match at Manchester United for handling the ball outside of the penalty area. This lead to Louis Soares being the unlucky player to have to be substituted in order for Scott Tynan to come on as substitute keeper. Manchester United won 4-1.
Flitney failed to really ingratiate himself with the Underhill fans, in particularly after a notable home game with Lincoln City when the Bees lost a 2-0 lead after a couple of mistakes by Flitney and eventually lost 3-2. It turned out that Flitney had played with mumps!!
The following season, Lee Harrison returned to the club, primarily to act as mentor to Flitney. However, Flitney was injured pre-season and this lead to Harrison taking over as first team keeper and this limited the number of appearances that Flitney made in the first team.
At the end of the 2006/07 season, Flitney was released and he joined Conference club, Grays Athletic. However, injuries limited his first team appearances there and he moved to Ryman League, Croydon Athletic where his excellent form has attracted attention and his career now appears to be on the upturn again with his move to the Blue Square South promotion hopefuls.
Meanwhile, two other ex-Bees are also on the move. Luke Hickie, who joined the Bees from Crystal Palace in 2005/06, and was labelled by Paul Fairclough as ‘one for the future’ has left Grays Athletic and joined Ryman League club, Kingstonian.
One of the Conference championship winning squad of 2005 has changed clubs too. Tom Champion, who signed for the club from Watford, early that season has left Bishops Stortford for Braintree Town. Champion made one Conference appearance for the Bees, coming on as a substitute in the 2-1 home win over Stevenage Borough. He also played in the 1-0 FA Trophy win against Farnborough and at Grays in the Conference Cup.