THEY THINK IT'S ALL OVER

It is now! Barnet surrender their Football League status in a flood of tears

Barnet's brief stay in the Football League came to a sad and dismal end on Saturday 5th May 2001. A large crowd, swollen by at least 2,000 Enfield supporters dressed in Torquay's blue and yellow showed up to see off their rivals from Blunderhill in some style. The day had begun well, with Sky's Soccer AM show revealing that the majority of callers wanted the Bees relegated, rather than the visitors from Torquay, who were also in danger of dropping into the Non League wilderness that is the Football Conference. Tim Lovejoy even wiped the smile off a Barnet supporter who was showing a small card that proclaimed 'Nicky Evans is GOD'. 'Who's he?' scorned our Tim. Well exactly.

What Barnet supporters there were in the ground had the indignity of queueing up along the road in double file to enter the ground through two turnstiles operated by a couple of old dears. Once inside the ground the creaking old East Stand looked incapable of holding any more than it had when Enfield regularly put on footballing treats to entertain football-starved Herfordshire folks back in Conference days. No programme sellers at the turnstiles and little chance of refreshments - what with long queues even for toilets. Clearly not what you would expect for a club claiming League status.

To be fair to their supporters, the hard-core Barnet support were making some noise up till kick off time. The trouble was, a lot of casual visitors standing alongside me are not going to make much noise when the going gets tough. And that's exactly what happened inside the first minute when Bees keeper Lee Harrison went down in a heap after a challenge by a Torquay forward. Within minutes his replacement Naisbitt was picking the ball out of the back of the net after Rees volleyed home for Torquay from 25 yards. A Bee had remarked behind me that Naisbitt was a dodgy shot stopper. Maybe the supporter should have also added that he was also suspect from corners. That was the second goal by Hill accounted for.

It was just at this point that a couple of Barnet supporters, bored with their sides performance, decided to approach the Torquay supporters and have a 'discussion'. Needless to say this moronic behaviour bought about an instant reaction and their dismissal soon after was well deserved.

Barnet should have clawed themselves back into the game from a penalty just before half time. No doubts about the decision at all, though Currie should be sent back to penalty school for allowing Jones to save easily, knocking at least a digit off his transfer value fee. The sucker punch followed shortly, as Torquay's third by Graham arrived via a far post volley. 0-3 and the trap door was just calling to be firmly shut.

Barnet huffed and puffed throughout the second half, with two goals only to show for their efforts. One of these was an own goal by Green, who at that point probably felt very sorry for his opponents! Ultimately, their forward line let the side down with two gilt-edged chances of preserving their league status. The funniest sight was of two male streakers running onto the pitch and totally distracting both the Barnet keeper and ex E Heald, who even took a wild kick at one and missed. When you're down, you're down eh?

Any chance of Barnet being promoted back to the Football League now looks slim to impossible, what with their ground situation. An opinion echoed in the Sunday Sport by a Bees supporter claiming the day to be 'the worst of my life'. So it's back to Non League for Barnet. The party is over and the club can now look forward to trips to the likes of Margate, Hayes and Dover. Nice.