Darren Dennehy was an early signing of Mark Stimson when he took over as Barnet manager in the summer of 2010. Dennehy arrived from Cardiff City but had played under Stimson during a loan spell in 2009/10 at Gillingham; a season which ended in Stimson losing his job at the Priestfield after the Gills were relegated to League Two.
Dennehy impressed Stimson and when he arrived at Underhill, Dennehy was heralded with a great fanfare as a major signing for the Bees. It was a big blow then when, five games into the league season, Dennehy was badly injured in the home game with Cheltenham Town and played no further part in the rest of the season.
So, at the beginning of last season and under a new manager in Lawrie Sanchez, it appeared almost as if Barnet had a brand new signing in Dennehy and Bees’ fans looked forward to him playing a big part in what everyone hoped would be a much stronger defence for the new campaign.
However, Dennehy missed the start of the new season, not making his first start until theAccringtonhome game at the beginning of September when he gave a promising and accomplished performance in an otherwise, disappointing game.
Dennehy still did not seem to be fully fit and was in and out of the team and though he missed the awful 6-3 home defeat at the hands of Burton Albion at the end of October, Sanchez straight after started recruiting new young defenders in the shape of Michael Hector, Paul Downing and Jack Saville on loan.
However, Dennehy’s problems were still caused more by his tendency to be injury prone than from the possibility of him being left out of the side. Following the Burton game, Dennehy was back in the starting line up and played the next four games, three of the victories, before getting a knock again and he was in and out of the side for a while after that but returned in time for the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy Southern Area Final 2nd leg at Swindon Town. Sadly, a Wembley final was not to be for the Bees and the club’s form dipped sharply after that with some poor performances; none worse than the dismal 4-0 home defeat at the hands of Bradford City where Dennehy, having started the game really well was sent off early on for a foul in the penalty area.
After missing the next three games through suspension, Dennehy came back for the home match with Morecambe but the following game, at home to Dagenham & Redbridge, turned out to his last appearance for Barnet as he picked up yet another knock and missed the rest of the season.
Sadly, Dennehy only made about 30 appearances for the Bees in all competitions. What had been expected to be a quality acquisition for the club turned out, in the end, to be disappointing and it was not particularly surprising when Dennehy was released at the end of the season. His injury record was clearly too much for the club to gamble on.
Barnet Mad wishes Darren all the best for the future.