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Post by Ditmar van Nostrilboy on Nov 12, 2014 9:59:07 GMT
I could have sworn I saw one of the team on Sunday down the sea front
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Post by Deleted on Nov 12, 2014 11:59:46 GMT
We'll get some good unexpected away wins, but we'll have some unexpected slip-ups. Jon will be pleased to know he was quoted on this - verbally - before we'd even made it back to Canon's Park underground station after the game. It may continue to be a see-saw ride. I often wish people were more lavish with their praise and more sparing with their criticism. But, as soon as you start praising, disappointment will surely follow. Be scathing and you may quickly be proved wrong. At 5pm yesterday I was declaring an all-time "low ebb" in the company of my mate from Surrey. Before the Aldershot game I'd warned him "anything can happen". I might be best sticking to such unsophisticated analysis in future. Or maybe the trick, after all, is to desist from positivity and concentrate upon gloom and doom. If the next game is to be won, I shall prepare for it by saying everything is absolutely crap. Absolutely, totally and utterly crap. Well, no. Not quite. Too much against the grain. But, joking apart, last night was an incredibly eventful game which provided plenty of talking points. In the hurry to get back to the outer reaches of North Surrey-beyond-the-Thames, everyone I encountered had a different angle on the game. This performance, that player, that incident. Each was fascinating and revealing in its own way. My angle was simply how hugely I'd enjoyed the whole evening. Not a perfect performance, of course, but a lot of pleasure. |
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Post by frankfurt gull on Nov 12, 2014 18:00:15 GMT
Anybody got the attendance? It´s not up on BBC Sport.
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Post by dazgull on Nov 12, 2014 20:27:26 GMT
Just over 1700 and that included some 2 for 1 tickets for Barnet and a few freebies to make it look like a crowd  No idea on ours as wasn't there but suspect around 200 or so |
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Jon
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Post by Jon on Nov 12, 2014 23:55:43 GMT
I'm sure I heard Hargreaves say that the team travelled up last Saturday??? One minute we can't go up the day before and then it's suddenly three days before!! He did say something about traveling up on Saturday. What I assumed (dangerous game) he meant was that he and Lee Hodges made a scouting trip to the Barnet v Wycombe game. Either that or someone has put Colin Lee back in charge of the finances. |
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Post by Jon on Nov 13, 2014 0:01:53 GMT
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Jon
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Post by Jon on Nov 13, 2014 0:16:15 GMT
I often wish people were more lavish with their praise and more sparing with their criticism...... My angle was simply how hugely I'd enjoyed the whole evening. Not a perfect performance, of course, but a lot of pleasure. You're not supposed to enjoy yourself! Back on with that hair shirt! There must have been something there to complain about, surely? What were the pies like? I see one line of criticism of Hargreaves is that we were ridiculously gung-ho in the last quarter of the game - getting outnumbered on the break a couple of times. I'm sure Jose Mourinho would have sat back and closed the game out. He can afford the best defenders in the world and they can soak up pressure better than Conference standard defenders can. We've all seen TUFC defend leads by dropping deep and absorbing attack after attack only to be undone by an error or two as the pressure builds. Barnet's league position suggests they are good at building pressure and scoring goals from that pressure. I thought it was actually a good idea to play so much of the last quarter in Barnet's half. Bringing on fresh legs in Ofori-Acheampong and Thompson, rather than an extra defender, meant they had their hands full stopping us rather than concentrating totally on scoring. The last 25 minutes went by far quicker than I was expecting them to! |
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Post by rjdgull on Nov 13, 2014 7:27:46 GMT
The last 25 minutes went by far quicker than I was expecting them to! Went quickly for me as well - about 2 miles of frantic pacing in the last 25 minutes!!! |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 13, 2014 9:35:35 GMT
You're not supposed to enjoy yourself! Back on with that hair shirt! There must have been something there to complain about, surely? What were the pies like? The last 25 minutes went by far quicker than I was expecting them to! Ah yes, the hair shirt. An important garment in the kit bag. No, sorry, no complaints about Tuesday evening. Smooth tube journey. Had already eaten so just a cuppa (or two) and a pack of 30p Viennese biscuits in the Wetherspoon's in Stanmore. Funny how so many of their pubs within the M25 have "moon" in their titles. Not even hateful towards Barnet's new ground. Prefabricated. Metallic. But it's interesting what you can do with temporary(ish) structures these days. It's "pop up" but serves a purpose. Place on the map aside, it's an impressive headquarters for Barnet. Just as importantly it's a cracking all-round football facility for that part of NW London. Friendly stewards too. Maybe the shortage of urinal troughs would be an issue for a larger away following. And, for me too, the last twenty-five minutes passed relatively quickly. I guess it was a curious finale with Barnet having made their substitutions by fifty-five minutes. So, to paraphrase one of Jon's favourite expressions, a good trip not spoilt by the football. Even Wednesday morning's rain soon cleared for me to enjoy the rest of my Thames walk from Shepperton to Windsor. Train back to Woking, everything on time. Then, again on schedule, the 1946 from Woking to Exeter Central duly arrived. It's busy; lots of people get off. There's six of us trying to into the front carriage. I'm sixth in line. The doors close, without warning, once the fifth person has boarded. I'm left on the platform for an hour. |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 13, 2014 12:37:20 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Nov 14, 2014 18:37:42 GMT
A belated postscript but I didn't know a great deal about The Hive until this week. I'd not realised it was initially earmarked as a new ground for Wealdstone (who may be described as "Harrow's team". Or, at least, one of them). Nor had I appreciated that the London Broncos rugby league team endured their alarmingly unsuccessful 2014 season as tenants at The Hive. I'd given up following their fate. In doing a spot of research, I found this aerial photograph of the Canon's Park area taken just a few years ago. The present-day Hive complex is pretty much in the centre (to the right of the Jubilee Line) where there's a patch of open, and apparently unused, space. It’s less manicured and a different shade of green to the other facilities in the area.  Plenty has been made of the fact that The Hive isn't within the London Borough of Barnet. Instead it's next door in Harrow. It seems to be held that, one day, Barnet should return to "the borough". You wonder if this will actually happen; you wonder about the significance of it anyway. Barnet itself was in Hertfordshire until the mid 1960s; the borough that was created thereafter consists not just of Barnet but also Finchley and Hendon. I imagine a Barnet FC playing in Hendon wouldn't be much different to one playing in Edgware. The club could well end up sticking with what it has. The once-mooted new home for Barnet was Copthall Stadium. Again not in Barnet itself but, still in the borough on the borders of Mill Hill and Hendon. It's now known as Allianz Park. Rugby union this time. Saracens. Here's an aerial view taken at the same time as that of Canon's Park and The Hive:  I'm pretty sure that, amongst Barnet's older supporters, the club's "rivals" are the same as in the days before the club first entered the Football League. That'll be Enfield and Hendon; possibly Wealdstone too. None of these clubs now play at their "traditional" homes. Enfield's old ground, where we played in the 1990s, is long gone; the club and its support split into two. Hendon's Claremont Road pitch lies derelict; Wealdstone were nomadic before eventually settling. In fact plot it all on a map and you'll see it's a westward flight: Barnet to The Hive in the borough of Harrow; Wealdstone to the former Ruislip Manor ground in Hillingdon; Hendon to share with Harrow Borough. It's only Enfield Town which is playing close to its roots; Enfield 1893 are far away in Harlow. Several of these grounds, past and present, are shown on this map taken from the newly-published Played in London. The line linking Underhill and The Hive illustrates one of several particularly significant geographical moves which have occurred over the course of the last century. There's a lot of grounds on this map. It would be fascinating to work on how many London grounds Torquay United have appeared.    Played in London covers all manner of sporting venues. There's even a brief mention of cycle speedway which we've discussed in the context of South Devon. It appears the sport had a yearbook in the early 1950s. I wonder if it includes mention of the clubs in and around Torquay?   |
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