National League relegation battle 18/19

[springerbfc]

Big second half coming up. If we carry on like this, I suspect Mad Dog will be back soon. Again. Again. Again. Again. Again. Again.

 

[Urban]

Don’t count us out of this race just yet everyone. Only Barnet could fuck up having 5/6 games in hand on everyone else. This club is literally a joke.

 

[springerbfc]

Just seen that we’ve scored 28 league goals this season. We are in real trouble.

 

[doveranddover]

Boreham Wood & Barnet in a race to collapse quicker than the other

 

[springerbfc]

Barnetnil v Barrow at the weekend. Massive game.

 

[CFC91]

Big win for us that

 

[spireite]

Might be time for us to leave this thread and go into the 'squeak of sneaking into the last playoff spot' thread. #upshezza

 

[#Beebot]

We're in genuine trouble. Our attacking play is clueless - endless triangles around the edge of the box and nobody wanting to shoot - while defensively we are bordering on arrogant, just far too relaxed.

Currie is clearly a great guy with a positive view of how the game should be played but his style is far too naive for this league and we don't have the quality to execute incisive attacking football so just end up looking timid and unadventurous in attack.

 

[springerbfc]

Sadly, we have a useless keeper, a weak back line, no creativity and no strength or finishing prowess up front.

John Still built this squad, not Currie. And let’s be honest, it was looking dire before Currie stepped in. Falling so many games behind has exacerbated our current dreadful situation. I am therefore prepared to cut Currie some serious slack.

However, we have a massive game on Saturday and if we lose, I suspect Currie will be gone and TK will just continue to repeat history by bringing back Allen.

 

[spireite]

We're in genuine trouble. Our attacking play is clueless - endless triangles around the edge of the box and nobody wanting to shoot - while defensively we are bordering on arrogant, just far too relaxed.

Currie is clearly a great guy with a positive view of how the game should be played but his style is far too naive for this league and we don't have the quality to execute incisive attacking football so just end up looking timid and unadventurous in attack.

Darren Currie? I had no idea he was your manager. He played for us a while back

 

[Chief Rocka]

I refuse to acknowledge Barnet are in any relegation trouble when they have 5 games in hand and still have FC Halifax to play twice.

 

[BarraMatt]

Don't worry lads, you're looking good for a point on Saturday. We've scored twice in our last six, four of them being 0-0s.

 

[EnglishRed]

Attendance 902.

Good god

 

[rudebwoyben]

Darren Currie? I had no idea he was your manager. He played for us a while back

He was a hero for us in his 3 years with us as a player between 1998 and 2001. He made the Divisional year of the team twice in that time as well.

 

[George Reilly's Hairpiece]

We are certainly in a relegation battle. No wins this year from the 6 games that we have played and averaging 0.5 points per game over that time. The only positive that I can take is that we are creating chances and that with 16 games still to play, we can grind out enough points to be safe.

Memories of 2000/01 still linger however, when it seemed impossible that we would lose every away game from the beginning of November, but we did, and went down on the last day after a shoot-out defeat with Torquay. This year we end with a game against H&W.

 

[karlready]

We're in genuine trouble. Our attacking play is clueless - endless triangles around the edge of the box and nobody wanting to shoot - while defensively we are bordering on arrogant, just far too relaxed.

Currie is clearly a great guy with a positive view of how the game should be played but his style is far too naive for this league and we don't have the quality to execute incisive attacking football so just end up looking timid and unadventurous in attack.

WOW! Are you Aldershot in disguise? These have been Waddocks "tactics" all season,no variation. See you on the cliff-edge...

 

[rudebwoyben]

WOW! Are you Aldershot in disguise? These have been Waddocks "tactics" all season,no variation. See you on the cliff-edge...

That's why we drew 0-0 with each other at the start of the season!

 

[Urban]

It seems only now that people realise that Barnet FC are dying. We have been for a number of seasons now and I’m not surprised to see such a low turnout. We have many more Tuesday home games left and I expect to see that plummet even further.

Give it a few years and we will either be playing regional football or out of business entirely. The club is rotten from the core and away fans don’t really seem to realise because we have this white elephant of a ground with exceptional away team facilities. Trust me, what even the majority of what home fans see is nothing compared to what I know is happening behind the scenes at the Hive.

It feels absolutely horrible to see the club that means so much to me, holds memories of times with parents etc just go out in such a way. At least clubs like Darlington, York, Stockport, Hereford etc have had the attendances and well meaning support behind them to make a fight of it through times that have been worse than we’re currently to reach (we will, though). If only 700 home fans can be bothered to attend now, how many will be bothered to support us when we inevitably enter even darker times?

I could go on to really dissect the problems and what limited solutions we have but what’s the point? It’s done now, we’re finished.

Don’t really know what I’ll do when I lose this club.

 

[#Beebot]

It seems only now that people realise that Barnet FC are dying. We have been for a number of seasons now and I’m not surprised to see such a low turnout. We have many more Tuesday home games left and I expect to see that plummet even further.

Give it a few years and we will either be playing regional football or out of business entirely. The club is rotten from the core and away fans don’t really seem to realise because we have this white elephant of a ground with exceptional away team facilities. Trust me, what even the majority of what home fans see is nothing compared to what I know is happening behind the scenes at the Hive.

It feels absolutely horrible to see the club that means so much to me, holds memories of times with parents etc just go out in such a way. At least clubs like Darlington, York, Stockport, Hereford etc have had the attendances and well meaning support behind them to make a fight of it through times that have been worse than we’re currently to reach (we will, though). If only 700 home fans can be bothered to attend now, how many will be bothered to support us when we inevitably enter even darker times?

I could go on to really dissect the problems and what limited solutions we have but what’s the point? It’s done now, we’re finished.

Don’t really know what I’ll do when I lose this club.

I think you've said before that you're reluctant to elaborate on the bold but is this stuff that would directly impact on what we see on the pitch, or is it stuff related to the running of the club that's generally not best practice?

Otherwise I pretty much agree with what you've written. The footballing side has been awful for a couple of years and being away from Barnet in an area with next to no interest in football means that when things are bad on the football side the attendances just nosedive.

Realistically we aren't going back to Barnet any time soon but solutions for me are to get a manager with a decent track record who isn't ancient, promote the club in Harrow and stop handing out two year deals like confetti to poor players. It was ridiculous that players with average career histories were all signed up on 2 year deals.

 

[Urban]

I think you've said before that you're reluctant to elaborate on the bold but is this stuff that would directly impact on what we see on the pitch, or is it stuff related to the running of the club that's generally not best practice?

Otherwise I pretty much agree with what you've written. The footballing side has been awful for a couple of years and being away from Barnet in an area with next to no interest in football means that when things are bad on the football side the attendances just nosedive.

Realistically we aren't going back to Barnet any time soon but solutions for me are to get a manager with a decent track record who isn't ancient, promote the club in Harrow and stop handing out two year deals like confetti to poor players. It was ridiculous that players with average career histories were all signed up on 2 year deals.

It’s nothing illegal or severe in that sense, or any kind of rule breaking behind the scenes. There’s just a lot of completely nonsensical decisions being made by Kleanthous as well as very able people in important positions leaving for a multitude of reasons (but all of which have a common denominator). I can’t really say more than that publicly as I don’t want get the people who have told me things to get in trouble (it’s happened before! Thankfully not from me).

I know all clubs go through bad patches in their ‘lives’ and attendances therefore always fluctuate around a rough average level (with a few exceptions - Lincoln being one who have done incredibly well to use their large catchment area to its full potential) but our attendances and stability as a club is so dependent on success on the pitch that it is playing with fire. Any team of our size and level should be able to muster 1.2kish home fans for a Tuesday game no matter what the situation. It speaks volumes.


I could go on and on about this (and maybe I will bore everyone when I have more time) but in short even if we do stay up this season, which is unlikely in my opinion, we’re due for worse times before it will/if it will get better.

 

[Rocky 11]

One thing is for sure, the National South is going to be a hell of a lot tougher to get out of next season.

Bad enough this season with Torquay, Woking and big spending BillyRicky joining, but next term looks like being so much tougher.

Not that we should worry, despite the best efforts of the manager and squad it looks like we'll be paying the price for our limited budget and fanbase, and re-joining our mates in the sticky Isthmian.

 

[springerbfc]

We must keep some perspective - in 2001(?) we had a crowd of 769 for a Tuesday night home game against Farnborough - a 3-0 defeat which thankfully saw John Still leave the club. We have basically come full circle over the past 18 years as we are once again left to pick up the mess that John Still leaves behind.

The club isn't dying - the club itself is in an incredibly strong position financially however, decision making is a continual problem. TK has always micro-managed everything and his managerial appointments and constant chopping and changing of our approach have become increasingly desperate and dysfunctional. For example, Currie wants to play more expansive football and yet Still signed a (poor) set of players looking to play a basic, percentage-based game.

Currie is hugely inexperienced and has a dreadfully unbalanced and bloated squad through no fault of his own. In my opinion, we need to stick with him and ride this out come what may. The alternative will be that TK gets Martin Allen back for the nth time and we continue to repeat the same mistakes ad infinitum.

We don't need too many wins to stay up and just a single win on Saturday will leave us in a much healthier position.

We are absolutely in the $hit but I take the opposite view - if we can find some stability on the managerial front, we are better placed to push on as a club than we have ever been before.

 

[rudebwoyben]

We must keep some perspective - in 2001(?) we had a crowd of 769 for a Tuesday night home game against Farnborough - a 3-0 defeat which thankfully saw John Still leave the club. We have basically come full circle over the past 18 years as we are once again left to pick up the mess that John Still leaves behind.

The club isn't dying - the club itself is in an incredibly strong position financially however, decision making is a continual problem. TK has always micro-managed everything and his managerial appointments and constant chopping and changing of our approach have become increasingly desperate and dysfunctional. For example, Currie wants to play more expansive football and yet Still signed a (poor) set of players looking to play a basic, percentage-based game.

Currie is hugely inexperienced and has a dreadfully unbalanced and bloated squad through no fault of his own. In my opinion, we need to stick with him and ride this out come what may. The alternative will be that TK gets Martin Allen back for the nth time and we continue to repeat the same mistakes ad infinitum.

We don't need too many wins to stay up and just a single win on Saturday will leave us in a much healthier position.

We are absolutely in the $hit but I take the opposite view - if we can find some stability on the managerial front, we are better placed to push on as a club than we have ever been before.

That Farnborough match was in 2002 and was a real low point for the club. We lost 3-0 limply with a blizzard occurring at the end of the match.

 

[Minstermen central]

Barnet used to best trip when you actually played in Barnet,drinking in Camden and Barnet.
When I went a few years ago to new ground,I hated it and said would never go back,great set up for academy with pitches but nothing to do for away fans.must be a struggle for home fans aswell.

 

[springerbfc]

Barnet used to best trip when you actually played in Barnet,drinking in Camden and Barnet.
When I went a few years ago to new ground,I hated it and said would never go back,great set up for academy with pitches but nothing to do for away fans.must be a struggle for home fans aswell.

 

[George Reilly's Hairpiece]

Barnet used to best trip when you actually played in Barnet,drinking in Camden and Barnet.
When I went a few years ago to new ground,I hated it and said would never go back,great set up for academy with pitches but nothing to do for away fans.must be a struggle for home fans aswell.

The bar facilities at the ground are actually quite decent. Unfortunately they don't have the first idea how to make use of them. Rafa Nadal serves quicker.

 

[rudebwoyben]

9 league matches for us this month..
This is crunch time!

 

[springerbfc]

Our next four home games (Barrow, Halifax, Hartlepool & Harrogate) need to yield at least two wins but given our home form, that seems quite unlikely. Anything picked up on the road at Halifax and Gateshead would be a bonus.

I would write off the Orient and Salford games. I am expecting a humilation against Orient in particular

The Aldershot game could be huge unless we manage to scramble a couple of wins before then.

On current form, I find it hard to see us picking up too many points this month but a win could spark something of a revival, as the squad is devoid of confidence. Would be nice to look forward to a month of nothing-to-play-for football in April...

 

[rudebwoyben]

Our next four home games (Barrow, Halifax, Hartlepool & Harrogate) need to yield at least two wins but given our home form, that seems quite unlikely. Anything picked up on the road at Halifax and Gateshead would be a bonus.

I would write off the Orient and Salford games. I am expecting a humilation against Orient in particular

The Aldershot game could be huge unless we manage to scramble a couple of wins before then.

On current form, I find it hard to see us picking up too many points this month but a win could spark something of a revival, as the squad is devoid of confidence. Would be nice to look forward to a month of nothing-to-play-for football in April...

I'm not sure why you would write off the Salford match. They're in even worse form than us and we're not too bad away from home.

 

[B2TF]

I refuse to acknowledge Barnet are in any relegation trouble when they have 5 games in hand and still have FC Halifax to play twice.

I wouldn't get so cocky only 4 points ahead of us, played a game more and still to play us again yet. Just saying. I mean, you're Hartlepool, the only club with a worse record as a Football League club than us.