October Newsfile

Newsfile Archive

If you think Underhill looks crap when half full, you should see it when its virtually empty, pathetic. The view from the main stand is poor, you can't see the near side touch line if you sit in the middle and if you at the end you can't see a quarter of the pitch as the end of the stand is covered by unclear perspex. Also from the side you can see that it's a hill not a slope.

The teams courtesy of the match day programme (a one page A4 sheet with the teams and officials, for which they had the nerve to charge 10p) were :

Barnet
Chris Williams, John Purchase, Ade Olayinka, Lee Pluck (C), Craig Pope, Lee Cattle, Sean Obili, Ross White, Scott Lovatt (a shaun devine lookalike, unreal), Mark Taylor, Peter McCann
Subs...Robert Goodyer, Tony Madden, Toby Oshitola, James Lovell, Ryan Kent

City
Gari Evans (Poor handling)
Darryl Phillips (A hard working RWB, got booked for kicking the ball away 2nd half)
Johnathon Derbyshire (LWB not quite as accomplished as the RWB)
Craig Davis (C) (Solid reliable middle of back three)
James Collins (Superb in the air, but he was 3 inches taller than anyone else, bit suspect when run at)
Lee Skelly (I expected him to be the pick of the crop, but nothing special just did his job)
Matthew Higginson (Nice player but had to fight for the ball and couldn't realy be that creative)
Geza Hajgato (My player of the match, cool and composed holding midfielder with good distribution)
Warren Givens (Nippy Centre forward who could run past players no problems, but couldn't beat a man running at him)
Tony Wallis (Put himself about to try and win the ball and scored a great goal, if only he had another yard of pace)
Martin Giles (Final midfielder who didn't really get the chance to be creative, but again a good passer)

Subs...Craig Thomas, Johnathan Howe, Dean Busby

Referee
James Jackson (Too whistle happy, didn't let the game flow even when the team offended against retained the ball)

Anyway, me and the hordes of other City fans gathered in the main stand (actually, I was the only City supporter in a crowd of about 50), to watch City kick off up the hill. It was weird, it was just like watching a scaled down version of the first team, they played a 5-3-2 formation, with great big lumbering centre backs and up front were a little and large combo, with the big lad expected to win knock downs for the little nippy striker picking them up. The midfield were nothing much to write home about with a holding midfielder and 2 creative midfielders. Barnet on the other hand played a 4-3-3 formation with either one of the wide front man expected to pull the City defensive three apart by staying out on his wing when the ball was on the other side of the field, but this didn't really work as the City wing backs actually came back to defend them anyway.

Barnet had the better start and after winning a free kick on the left side of the field in line with the 18 yard area, the ball was whipped into the near post but was somehow missed by everyone of the six or eight players huddled there, the keeper was so surprised by the ball appearing through the crowd that he dropped it, but managed to regain it again before a Barnet player could react.

City's first chance was a ball knocked over the top for the nippy City centre forward who took it to the by-line and pulled back a lovely firm low cross into the centre of the box, which the last Barnet defender just managed to clear at full stretch and a good job for Barnet that he did as the other City forward was right behind just waiting to tap the ball into the back of the gaping net.

It was at this stage that I noticed that the Barnet coach had not stopped shouting at his players since the kick off (he was also having a go at the ref and the linesman nearest him), while the City coach Gavin Tait didn't have to say a word. City obviously knew what they were doing and how and where to position themselves, whilst the Barnet players were always being told what to do. As it turned out the Barnet coach didn't stop shouting all through the game, at one point I swear the refv only gave a free kick to Barnet after their coach appealed, this led to Gavin Tait telling the ref to make his own decisions!

Five minutes later, Barnets ploy of playing every set piece into the front post to a sea of players packed there, paid dividends. When the ball came through the melee this time, it hit the post and bounced onto the keepers chest. This time, when the keeper spilled it, the Barnet attacker did react quicker and stabbed the ball home from 5 yards.

On the half hour City squared the game with a goal worthy of the move. Building from the back, the right wing back and a midfielder swapped a couple of passes to get City upfield and when the RWB recived the ball back he slid a lovely pass through the defence, this time the big lad was on the recieving end and as he didn't have the real pace to let the ball run on for him to chase ahead of the defender, he held the ball, turned his defender with a dip of his shoulder, came inside the next defender to the edge of the box and hit a terriffic left foot drive past the diving keeper inside his near post, a lovely finish.

Half time Barnet 1 City 1

City started second half playing down the hill which I thought would help no end but it was Barnet who came up with the first attack to win a corner. Surprise, surprise the ball whipped into the near post was missed by everyone again, this time it was a Barnet attackers fault to be surprised to find the ball at his feet and his instant reactionary shot hit the keeper and rebounded out another Barnet attacker tried to slot the ball home but the keeper had recovered his composure and made a good low save to push the ball away from danger.

If anyone wonders whatever happened to Jimmy Goodfellow, he's alive and well and is the youth team physio. he had to come on after 5 mins of the second half as a City defender and Barnet attacker had an innocent clash of heads challenging for a high ball.

That was about it in the second half as the game became more ragged as tiredness set in and the good football dried up with more mistakes creeping in. City did have a couple of long range efforts blocked and one occasion when the big lad up front (looking at least 4 yards offside) latched on to a through ball, he toe poked the ball past the advancing keeper but also past the far post.

Barnets best chance of the second half came late on in the game and came from a BACK POST CORNER (I almost died of shock) when a free header (all the City markers were at the front post) was stopped on the line by the defender on the back post, he didn't clear it far but had a second chance to, as his first clearance was hit back at him by a Barnet player. This time he did clear properly.

Barnet used the permitted three from five substitutes, whereas City didn't use one of their 3 subs (and 1 of them was a keeper), why only 3 subs I do not know unless the youth team squad consists of 14 players or they only have 14 shirts !!!!

Full time Barnet 1 City 1

I still haven't seen a City team win at Underhill.