Nervy Last 20 Minutes Has Everything In The Balance

Eight from eight but only just

After a mammoth month of watching the Bees through September, October was a balance up month. Whilst of course I have this blog to add anything Barnet I want to, keeping the paid work diverse so enough people want to read it is a fine line sometimes.

Long away trips are always out of the question for me coming from the very South Coast, in fact heading to The Hive is a mission in itself and always has been, but having gone through those years of not being allowed to attend I don’t complain.

Saturday was an interesting trip up to say the least! Having arranged to meet Rob (@hayhive to you and me) in Moranos at 12.30, beer drinking was pretty much scuppered thanks to a rail replacement service from Finchley Road.

A small schoolboy error, I head up by train and tube so infrequently I never check the tube lines, just the rail line into London, but something I best remember for the next one I do!

Heading up on the tune of back to back defeats this season for the first time a strong test against a Rochdale side performing very well under Jim McNulty and certainly should be talked about in the mix for what is an open division to win this year.

Whilst I miss heading to Legends and seeing all the faces and having a chat with so many great people £24 isn’t justifiable for National League football for me. I like to stand as well; I sit down whether driving or on the train for a good 2 hours plus so the safe standing area is just perfect.

Plus I get to listen to those on the bench far more clearly, granted I get all the insights I want the day after and during the week which is a privileged position much of that stays with me, I choose what I can and can’t share.

An early lead through Nicke Kabamba’s goal, 7 in 7 since returning is a great return, more on that later on. A superb press on the Dale defence and keeper forced the error and a simple roll into an early net.

For me that was needed after the last two games. Although we took the lead in both of those outings it felt a strong response and so early in the match too.

Dale seemingly had just one plan, knock a long ball up to Kairo Mitchell and hope it stuck, 99 times out of 100 in the first half it didn’t and pretty much no other ideas.

The referee, I often don’t add much in on about them, had a poor overall game, The withdrawal of Mark Shelton came from a foul, clipped from Aidan Barlow who should have carded for it, just a yellow mind but missed. That was the beginning, we’ll come to another later on.

The game was comfortable, Bailey Hobson picking up some nice spaces, Jordan Cropper with lots of room down the right wing but no second goal. Well not until it arrived, and boy did it arrive.

A nice move as we come to expect out to Ben Coker on the left touchline, inside he came and what a sweet, curled effort from his much weaker right foot to double the Bees advantage.

I’m not giving him a disservice calling it one from his ‘swinger’, his left foot delivery is always on the money, we don’t make enough of it in the box in my opinion, his right is for standing on but that was top drawer to deliver that one.

A comfortable and deserved lead, I remarked to Rob the only way Rochdale looked like scoring would be through us making a mistake, also more on that later!

Dale did make a couple of tweaks to start the half but Barnet were countering nicely against the changes, pressure was growing a little but Nick Hayes equal to anything in the Bees goal.

Kabamba had a glorious chance to add a third Barnet goal, but opted to not outrun the defender, cutting back inside and then completely missing his kick, a moment almost to rue by the final whistle.

Now, back to that referee. If you’ve seen the clip online inside our own half, Kabamba wins a tussle with Liam Hogan and starts to get away, Hogan falling down drags the striker to the floor, decision goes the way of the defender, dangerous when already on a yellow card, just baffling from the man in black.

70 minutes in and reward for the Dale, but yet another individual error. Under very little pressure and having been pretty assured all game an extremely short back pass from Ade Oluwo sold Hayes out and Ian Henderson converted to reduce the deficit.

What followed was nothing short of a Dale onslaught. Wave after wave, a panic amongst the home side to not hold onto the ball and often picking the wrong pass. They had chances, glorious chances to win a point and quite possibly three, how they went home with nothing is absolutely beyond me, we were very, very lucky to hang on and take the win.

Those 20 minutes aged everyone inside that stadium, home or away fan. Eight wins from eight played at home is superb, can’t deny that at all. And I’m not trying to look for the negatives because simply they are there, but there are plenty of positives too.

Let’s take the negs first. I mentioned Nicke, 7 in 7. Brilliant. But, and here is the but I felt he coasted through that game, that missed opportunity nearly cost us when 3-0 would have put the game beyond them completely.

That lack of being clinical has haunted us for coming up to three seasons, it makes the big difference between being runaway leaders and in a pack of three or four hunting down the title.

We are the only side that keeps persisting with only having one striker at the club to rely on, no pressure to keep to standards. And that feels daft saying that with his record, but I’m sure others who’ve been at games I haven’t will say it should be 12 in 7 or more.

Tony, if you’re serious about promotion let’s get moving. I know many will point to the summer recruitment and say we signed too many defenders. The Bee Brief have been through brilliantly saying we don’t pay super wages and we don’t, that won’t change, but there are deals we can do for a striker, make it happen.

Just look around you at how many every other club has, even Wealdstone have 28 registered players, there is room.

The errors. How do you fix that? Every single game we seem to have at least one in us, that is why we HAVE to be super clinical at the other end, we have to make a difference if we are needing to counter what is going on.

I don’t want to put Ryan Glover in a neg spot, because he’s clearly not a neg. But it looks to me, and my opinion only, that a lack of a proper pre-season has caught up with him with the games coming thick and fast, nothing else than that and no fault of his coming in later than most. Maybe this weekend is the ideal time for a week off? We’ll see come the team sheet on Saturday, got a lot of time for our sponsored player this year.

Right time to counter with the positives. And there were a few! Joe Rye was excellent for 60 minutes, not surprising he was blowing by the end, similar for Cropper. Jordan I feel has been banging on the door to start games and got his chance at last. Joe we know is one for the future, a player I know has bags of talent too.

With no chance of reserve team football or anything such like these days, difficult to get up to speed for many quickly but hopefully both involved again this coming weekend.

Cokes was my MOM, brilliant defensively and going forward offered just as much, his form certainly keeping Idris Kanu out of the side and rightly so, the end product from his left foot is missed when not there.

Great catch up with Harry Pritchard after the game and the lift to Edgware was much appreciated, fingers crosses for good news in the coming weeks for him regarding the back niggles still.

The win was needed much so, the expectation this season is higher than ever and this might well come across as very critical rather than praise but would I be a good blogger if I only posted when things are rosy? Balance is everything I think, after all though we just want the full best for Barnet FC.