LIAM O’BRIEN
Liam O’Brien arrived at Underhill in early 2011 after being released by Portsmouth where he had represented England at Under 19 level. While at Portsmouth, O’Brien had a spell on loan at Eastbourne Borough.
O’Brien made his Barnet debut in the 3-1 win at BradfordCity and made a sloppy mistake which lead to the Bantams going ahead, but he kept his place for the next 4 games before Jake Cole regained the keeper jersey after the 2-0 home defeat to Southend United. O’Brien only made 3 more appearances up to the end of the season largely because of the arrival of Sam Walker a loan signing from Chelsea. O’Brien made 8 appearances for the season.
In 2011/12, under the new management of Lawrie Sanchez, O’Brien largely played second fiddle to new keeper, Dean Brill but had two short spells in the side; the first a run of 6 games in October following the 2-1 home defeat to Northampton town which ended with the disastrous 6-3 home defeat at the hands of Burton Albion and secondly, a run of five games the following spring after Barnet had gone down 4-1 at Aldershot until the 2-0 home defeat by Morecambe after which, Brill won his place back. O’Brien made 11 appearances in 2011/12.
Last season, 2012/13, saw O’Brien start the season in pole position under Mark Robson and he was outstanding in Barnet’s opening home game against Bristol Rovers when he was named man of the match. However, Liam sustained an injury following the next game, at home to YorkCity and that proved to be his last performance for Barnet, partly due to the injury, but more because of the arrival of Graham Stack from Hibernian. O’Brien went on loan to Ryman league club, Hastings United and played in their 3rd round FA Cup tie at Middlesbrough where he saved a penalty. O’Brien made just four appearances for the Bees last season and was released at the end of the season having made a total of 23 appearances for the club.
Barnet Mad wishes Liam all the best for the future.