Another bitterly disappointing result at Underhill on Tuesday afternoon wasn’t it? I thought the players would be right up for getting another three points on the back of the Accrington Stanley game a few weeks ago; the last time the Bees played, due to the adverse weather conditions at Port Vale and Southend respectively.
The volunteers who helped the grounds-men clear the snow off the Underhill pitch beforehand are probably wishing they hadn’t bothered. But to be fair to them, they did a marvellous job to get the game on. I’m not sure how pleased all the companies who have paid to have advertising hoardings around the pitch are, as all the heaps of snow were covering them!
With such a long break from playing, you would have thought that the team would have been willing to put all their energy into the match with maximum effort. Yet, at times, 7 or 8 of the players just looked so lethargic. The only players in the black and amber shirts who seemed like they meant business throughout the 90 minutes were Jake Cole, Sam Cox, Glen Southam and Izale McLeod. I saw how upset Glen Southam looked when we conceded our goals, but every time, he picked himself up, trying to get the team back into the game. He wanted to set an example for his team-mates, yelling at Rick Holmes who is playing with as much confidence as Wayne Rooney.
Who knows, we could be comfortably out of the relegation zone, if Izale McLeod converted his chance in the first minute. He was clean through on goal and could have easily given the ball to Steve Kabba and Ricky Holmes who were in a goal scoring position, but instead, McLeod decided to go alone and waste the opportunity. At least he got on the score sheet, but by that time, County were dominating the match and were always searching for their second goal which they did have to wait for after the Bees equalizer.
I remember listening to commentary on TalkSport of New Zealand versus Paraguay at the World Cup, and Bobby Gould said that he had never felt so flat at a match in his entire life. I felt the exact same way at times on Tuesday, there was hardly any atmosphere whatsoever. You could hear what the managers were telling their players, as well as what the referee was saying. The match wasn’t even that boring; sure, it was of a poor standard, but there were talking points, such as the penalty incident, which, by the way, was a clear penalty. In League 2 what do you expect?
If the weather holds up, I will be at Underhill for the Aldershot match on Saturday, rooting for the Bees. Also, let’s hope that we can get take revenge on Stevenage at Broadhall Way on Monday too. There have been plenty of terrible nights supporting Barnet in recent years, but perhaps, the worst I’d ever felt, was after Stevenage walloped us at Underhill in early November. There should be a cracking atmosphere on Monday. This could be the most important 180 minutes of football in Barnet’s history. If we lose them both, I can’t see any way for us to dig ourselves out of the hole we find ourselves in.
Come on you Bees!