Daniel Leach

In the latest of Barnet Mad’s series on players recently released by the club we look at Daniel Leach. Leach, born in Australia, had been playing in American university football before coming to England looking to find an English league club. The young centre back got a trail at Barnet and impressed when he came on as a substitute against Arsenal in last summer’s pre season friendly at Underhill.

Surprisingly, Leach found himself in the side for the opening match at Lincoln alongside Ismail Yakubu and he acquitted himself well in the early matches but injuries meant that he lost his place to Clovis Kamdjo as Barnet went on a run of five successive league wins and briefly led the League Two table.

Leach’s appearances were somewhat sporadic after that and he had a spell on loan at Blue Square South club, Dover and impressed at the Crabble but injury to Yakubu led to Leach being recalled from his loan spell by Ian Hendon. Leach played in the games against Macclesfield and Dagenham & Redbridge but was sent off against the Daggers after giving away two penalties as Barnet lost 4-1. Leach was pushed up front in the match against Rotherham in a desperate attempt to grab a point. His last match was in the poor 1-0 defeat away at Accrington which led to Ian Hendon being sacked and injury meant that he missed the last two games of the season.

Leach looked a promising young defender who maybe was pushed into the side too quickly but was young enough to maybe have warranted another year’s contract at the club. Barnet Mad wishes him all the best for the future.

Daniel Leach’s playing record for Barnet: