Bowing Out In Blackpool
National League, over and out
If you follow me on Twitter/X (@trevk37) then you would have seen me post that AFC Fylde away wasn’t on my bingo card back in August! Champions of the National League was however, but also not in the manner we achieved it.
I was still deliberating when on the way to The Hive for the Aldershot game as to whether I should actually go for it, the youngest well she talked me into doing it, the credit card came out and two nights in Blackpool secured, the summer to pay it off.
Blackpool I’ve seen us play twice at Bloomfield Road, an ill fated 3-2 defeat in that relegation season, a 2-2 midweek February draw under Kevin Nugent was my only other visit, but this time a 20 minute journey to a ground I’d never previously been to.
What transpired over the course of these two days just reinforced how tight this football club is from the players to the supporters. Journey up on Sunday daytime was sensible, check into the room and straight out to meet those also doing at least one night on the tiles.
The Manchester. A great venue on the promenade and already rocking when I arrived at just gone 5pm. And boy, rocking with a capital R! This wasn’t just a set of supporters, this was half the first team squad leading the way.
Now, you might want to judge, feel free to. But, these lads were mixing with everyone, the look on the faces of people I’ve been with at games all season was just a joy to see, almost a level of not believing what was before their very eyes but relishing every single moment.
Nick, Lee, Jack and I sloped off for some food a few miles away, but Nick and I returned for more afterwards, heading into Ma Kellys only to find the party had moved to there and many more of the squad had ventured out, Connor Smith and Kirk Rayment leading more celebrations before tucking up in bed, I mean there was a game going on the next day!
A great little stadium they have, 500 odd Bees in attendance and one or two surprising names on the team sheet, surprising because of the night before, but to be fair you wouldn’t have really known which ones they were.
The game itself, coasting against the Coasters, a superb header from Ade Oluwo, Mark Shelton again (no more to be said) and Lee Ndlovu with an easy third, a game where we didn’t really need to get above second gear and if it wasn’t for their keeper four just would have been just desserts at half time at least.
46 games played, champions a week early and six clear of York City in the final table. But the manner of how this title has been won is just something else.
Downhill Second Half provided us with the stats on Tuesday morning and I want to highlight a few. As we knew at the start of play one point to becomes the first Barnet side ever in history to reach 100 points, 102 actually secured and only the 7th side to reach that figure in the National League.
22 clean sheets, 12 of which came away from home. Defending in the three years prior was our achilles heel, smashed that with some ease and actually conceded the least in the division in 38 goals whilst top scoring with 97 goals.
31 wins from 46 played, just six defeats and of course just one in the last 31 games is just crazy, it really is crazy. Everyone played a part, the players, the staff, the supporters cheering everyone on, the club itself providing platforms to all to excel.
To be an one stage unbeaten for half of the season is potentially something we’ll never see again. It’s credit to York City for a majority of that they kept pace because that run was ludicrous if we’re honest.
How many teams change their goalkeeper and sell their then top scorer in mid-January and power to the league title? There won’t be many to follow in our footsteps, but there will be plenty wondering how they match what we’ve achieved.
There are points throughout the campaign we can point to that tipped things in our balance, no silly National League Cup before we started, the fee TK paid for Ryan Glover when no one else would, the signing of Owen Evans and then Lee Ndlovu, radically changing the way we played.
Consistently beating sides in the top seven, another achilles heel levelled at Dean Brennan and his staff, the way York were put to the sword in February, big away wins at Rochdale, Oldham and Altrincham, remaining calm under the pressure and easing that at Sutton Utd, everyone will have their own personal moment and memory.
The dust has settled for a couple of days, Blackpool though with so many good people is still fresh but the retained and released list is out. I’ve digested it and will post a further blog on that, some will be gone after a magical nine months but leave a champion, something not taken away from any of us, but this is the nature of the beast.
Cherish everything you’ve seen, remember we had lows, but remember we found ways for even more highs, these kind of seasons don’t come around all the time, but we are THE CHAMPIONS.
As always, thank you so much for reading all through the season and feel free to share this posting with any fellow Bees fans. If you would like to ‘buy me a coffee’ or make a donation the link is here and I fully appreciate your support either way.