Albert Adomah, Barnet’s exciting young winger has decided to join Championship club, Bristol City and bring to an end two and a half years at Underhill since arriving from Harrow Borough in January 2008.
I doubt that many Barnet fans believed that Adomah would make such a quick impact when he signed for the club from a Ryman League side. However, Albert was an immediate hit scoring on his debut as Barnet beat Hereford United 2-1 at Edgar Street, the first time that the Bees had ever won there.
In the next few games, it was more a case of Adomah settling into the side, but he exploded into action with two fine goals in the 4-1 win at home to Shrewsbury Town and by the end of the season had scored 5 goals in 22 matches and greatly endeared himself to the Underhill fans.
Such was his impact, and the interest created amongst other clubs, that it was a slight surprise that Adomah was still at Underhill for the beginning of the 2008/09 season. As Paul Fairclough’s side got off to a truly dreadful start to the season, Adomah was one of the few successes in a struggling team and was again the subject of much interest amongst other clubs, some of whom were much higher up in the league.
Despite Barnet’s poor form, Adomah was able to maintain his form and scored a very creditable 7 goals in the first half of the season, including both goals in a 2-0 win at Bournemouth over Christmas in Fairclough’s last match in charge before handing over to Ian Hendon.
In spite of receiving a lot of attention from opposition sides who often put two or more defenders onto him, Adomah rarely missed a Barnet match and the first game he missed was in fact the last match of the season at home to Port Vale.
Under Ian Hendon, the club’s form began to improve and some of the pressure was taken off of Adomah as Hendon’s rebuilding meant that other teams did not just have Adomah to focus on and the former Harrow man’s form blossomed in the second half of the season, although he only managed two more goals to take his tally to 9 for the season.
With Blackpool and Watford, amongst another clubs, showing interest in Adomah, most fans felt that Albert would move during the summer of 2009, but Albert stayed on at Underhill and started the season in fine form, along with the rest of the side. Barnet had a fine spell early in the season, winning five matches in a row with Adomah scoring direct from a free kick as the Bees won 1-0 away at Torquay.
Despite injuring his nose at Macclesfield, Adomah returned in the next match at Bradford City, coming on as a substitute to torment the opposition defenders as the Bees came back to grab a spirited point in a 2-2 draw. However, the team’s form began to dip after that and by November had begun to spiral into freefall.
Hendon’s tactics of playing two wingers in most games and playing two similar central midfield players led to other clubs quickly cutting off Adomah’s supply lines and Albert seemed to suffer a loss of form and confidence as a result, even being dropped to the bench on occasions; something that would have seemed unthinkable before.
With other clubs remaining interested and, in particular, Blackpool manager, Ian Holloway publicly stating his interest in the player, Albert may have felt unsettled. Whatever, the reason, transfer talk or Hendon’s tactics, Adomah’s form dropped badly for the first time since his arrival from Harrow and it became clear to many fans that it was probably in the best interests of both club and player that he left at the end of the season.
Adomah’s form picked up under Paul Fairclough’s brief tenure as caretaker manager following Hendon’s sacking as the threat of relegation grew ever more serious and the club offered Albert a reported 20% above what any player had ever received at Underhill in an effort to keep him, But Albert decided that he wanted to leave and it s clear from his move to Ashton Gate, that despite his disappointing form last season, his talent is such that it deserves to be seen on a higher stage than League Two.
As with the departure of Jason Puncheon, two years ago it is sad that such a talented player is leaving Barnet but I’m sure many Bees’ fans will agree that it has been a privilege to watch him at Underhill in the last 2 ½ years and he has left the fans with a lot of happy memories from his time here. It will certainly make watching the Football league Show more interesting on a Saturday seeing how he develops in the Championship.
Albert Adomah’s playing record for Barnet:
|
|
STARTS |
SUB APPEARANCES |
TOTAL |
|
LEAGUE |
104 |
8 |
19 |
|
FA CUP |
3 |
1 |
1 |
|
LEAGUE CUP |
2 |
|
|
|
JPT |
2 |
|
|
|
TOTAL |
111 |
9 |
20 |