Barnet: Club Background
Almost everything about Barnet FC as it exists today is basically larceny: its colours; its history as an EFL club; its ground; even its name.
Football in the area first appears in the records in 1882 (as Woodville FC). That club then became New Barnet FC in 1885, before morphing into Barnet FC in 1888… which folded in 1902.
Meanwhile, Barnet Avenue FC (formed 1890) and Alston Works AFC (formed 1901 and playing at Underhill from 1907) eventually merged as Barnet & Alston in 1912 as founder members of the Athenian League. Alston Works provided the amber & black colours.
After the suspension of football for the First World War up popped another Barnet FC, at Underhill, playing in amber & black and members of the Athenian League. There it stayed for 53 years, winning the title seven times. There were also three Amateur FA Cups Finals, with the cup lifted once in 1945-46.
The following season there was a moment of footballing and television history – the first live televised football match by the BBC, between Barnet and Wealdstone on 19th October 1946 at Underhill. It managed to overcome technical hitches to broadcast 20 minutes of the first half; and then 35 minutes of the second, before giving up when it became too dark to follow the action. However, as we shall see, this is not why Wealdstone fans hate and despise Barnet with a passion.
In 1965 Barnet left amateur football to turn semi-professional, joining the Southern League. Promotion as Champions of Division 1 in 1965-66 saw them reach the Southern League Premier Division, and so for the first time cross paths with Yeovil Town on February 11th 1967 – the start of a long rivalry between the two clubs only occasionally broken by various relegations and promotions for either one.
By the 1970s, Barnet were becoming one of the bigger forces in non-league football, finishing runners-up in the FA Trophy in 1971-72 and winning the Southern League Cup in the same season. They suffered a brief relegation in the mid-1970s but were immediately promoted in time for them to become one of the founder members of the Alliance Premier League (which would briefly become the Gola League, then the Football Conference, and is now known as the National League).
Just prior to that, in 1978, a certain Barry Fry became their manager, in what would be a long association with the club, broken only by a brief 1985-86 spell with Maidstone United, that would last until 1993. Barnet were pretty consistently lower mid-table under Fry until the somewhat infamous ticket tout Stan Flashman rocked up as chairman in 1985, buying the club (probably in cash!) for £50,000 to save it from receivership. Barnet were Conference runners-up in 1986-87 (to Scarborough), 1987-88 (to Lincoln City) and 1989-90 (to Darlington) before finally becoming Champions in 1990-91 and reaching the English Football League.
Barnet’s Football League experience was to be a turbulent one. On the pitch, scorelines such as 4-7 and 5-5 showed Fry’s attacking style that saw goals galore at both ends; and in their first season the Bees made the play-offs, but lost out to Blackpool at the semi-final stage. The next season the club went one better, with automatic promotion in third. However off the pitch things were unravelling. Flashman, always inclined towards playing fast and loose financially, had taken the club to the brink. The club accounts were a mess, players and staff weren’t being paid. Fry saw the writing on the wall and jumped ship, joining Southend United, before promotion was done and dusted. It was his assistant, Edwin Stein, who actually guided them over the finish line to take them to promotion and Division Three.
Stein then also immediately departed, joining Fry at Southend over the summer. Flashman appointed their goalkeeper Gary Phillips as the manager, but Barnet was facing a motion of expulsion from the Football League at the EGM due to the non-payment of their players and other financial irregularities. In the end Barnet wasn’t expelled, but a tribunal nullified the unpaid players contracts and the vast majority of the promotion winning side took the opportunity to walk away. Phillips – later joined by former England goalkeeper Ray Clemence – cobbled together a squad of mostly free transfers. Unsurprisingly Barnet was relegated in last place, 25 points short of the survival line. Flashman resigned as chairman during the season. Anthony Kleanthous bought the club in 1994, in the process becoming the youngest chairman in the EFL at 28 years of age.
The Bees then spent seven more seasons bumping around back in fourth tier football. Phillips was let go and Clemence became manager for a couple of seasons before departing to become goalkeeping coach in the England set up. Assistant manager Terry Bullivant stepped up to the No. 1 spot. It wasn’t considered a success, with a lower-mid-table finish in 1996-97; so Bullivant was out and in came John Still.
Still delivered two (unsuccessful) play-off campaigns, but by 2000-01 the chairman was getting impatient. Still was kicked upstairs and former England international Tony Cottee was recruited as player-manager. Cottee had no managerial experience and by the time he departed in March (he has subsequently chosen never to manage again, spending his time as a pundit telling others how they should be doing it) Barnet were staring at the trap door out of the EFL. Still was restored as manager and the season went to last match drama, with Torquay United in 23rd, one point behind but with a superior goal difference, travelling to Barnet in 22nd. The Gulls won 3-2 and The Bees were relegated.
Apart from the loss of Football League status Barnet had a long-term problem rumbling on in the background – their Underhill stadium. It was old and ramshackle, there were seven stands accumulated over the decades, but that was the least of the problem. Much more fundamental was the pitch being on a massive slope (those who made much of the old Yeovil Town Huish slope had never played at Underhill!). As ground regulations were tightened up the ground had slipped below Football League standards. Barnet kept promising to develop the pitch and get it to a permissible level, but it never did.
Football authorities have a long history of taking any lines of least resistance, bending their own rules when it suits, and letting things slide. So while Barnet was in the EFL it wasn’t that hard to spin the authorities along year after year. Getting back in again once they’d slipped out might be more of a problem – there were examples of clubs refused promotion on ground grading issues. As it happened, it took three changes of manager – from Still, to Peter Shreeves to Martin Allen to Paul Fairclough – and four years for The Bees to get back up: there was a failed play-off campaign in 2003-04 before they became Conference Champions in 2004-05.
The EFL, in its wisdom, had adopted a policy of giving clubs two seasons to meet any ground requirements occasioned by promotions, whether out of Non-League, or internally into the Championship where all-seater stadiums were asked for. There’s no indication it had any idea what it would do if a club simply didn’t. Kleanthous had cultivated plenty of contacts in football’s high places over the years, sitting on many FA committees; and a cynic might suspect he was more than prepared to call the bluff and dare the authorities to kick Barnet out, confident that they’d let rules slide rather than face a storm by enforcing them, just as they had over Underhill when Barnet was previously in the EFL. But he was also canny enough to throw in a dead cat, just to make sure any attention was diverted, cultivating a long running row with Barnet Council. It’s hard to know where the actuality lay, with the versions briefed by the council and by Kleanthous over the years often at total variance. Probably both sides were spinning and being economical with the truth.
What seemed to have become a complete impasse was to be by-passed when Kleanthous came up with a new plan: Barnet would nick someone else’s ground. Wealdstone, which had spent many years ground sharing after messing up the sale of Lower Mead, was finally in the process of building a new stadium on the disused Prince Edward Playing Fields at Canons Park in the London Borough of Harrow. A year in, with work about a third complete, the construction company being used went bankrupt. Work halted for the next two years. Harrow Borough Council decided to lease the site on condition that whoever took it on it would complete the stadium as a home for Wealdstone. It was Kleanthous who became lease-holder in 2006, stating at the time that Barnet would only be using it as a training ground. Barnet carried on playing at Underhill – Kleanthous had called that right, the two year deadline for Barnet to sort its pitch slope out came and went and the EFL did absolutely nothing about it.
Back on the sloping Underhill pitch Barnet’s latest spell in the Football League had not been going well with 12th their best finish. Fairclough was the next to be kicked upstairs, succeeded by his assistant Ian Hendon. That didn’t work, with a 21st place finish, so back downstairs came Fairclough for a short caretaker spell before Mark Stimson was appointed. He only lasted half the 2010-11 campaign before being sacked, Fairclough taking up the reins yet again. After a meagre return of 3 wins in 17 games back upstairs he went, with Martin Allen returning for his second spell as manager. That lasted a whole three games before Allen decided he’d rather be at Notts County and left the building. Guiliano Grazioli (who many older Yeovil fans will remember, as although he only played 13 games for us on loan from Peterborough United he scored 16 goals in that short spell) became Barnet’s fourth manager of the season. Rather surprisingly, amidst this turmoil, The Bees stayed up, but only avoiding relegation with a 1-0 win over Port Vale from the penalty spot and other results going their way on the final day of the season to finish 22nd. Grazioli was demoted to assistant manager and Lawrie Sanchez, earlier brought in as an ‘advisor’, was appointed manager for 2011-12.
By April 2012 Barnet was again staring at relegation for the third season in a row. Out went Sanchez and up popped Martin Allen, again. And for the third season in a row EFL status was retained on the last day of the season. Allen then left for Gillingham. However, one can only defy the pull of gravity for so long…
The 2012-13 campaign, with Fairclough once again Director of Football and Mark Robson as Head Coach, started badly, without a win through August and September, so Kleanthous came up with an exciting plan – well it excited the media anyway. In October in came Edgar Davids (yep, seriously, that Edgar Davids) as player / joint head coach, with Robson now as the other joint head coach. By December it was clear the two were at odds and Robson departed the club. Again Barnet’s fate was decided on the last day of the season, but this time not in its favour, relegated out of the EFL on goal difference.
Back to matters off the pitch… with suspiciously convenient timing Kleanthous had got embroiled in another massive row with Barnet Council and this time used it as an argument for moving the club out of the Borough entirely. Now the football authorities have rules on club catchment areas, and what had now turned from Prince Edward Playing Fields into The Hive was supposed to belong to Wealdstone, but Kleanthous insisted The Bees were only moving there on a temporary basis… and a clause in the lease precluded the playing of Football League games there as well… so move along, nothing to see!
A lacklustre first half to the campaign back in Non-League saw Davids depart in January and a couple of months later Martin Allen rocked up yet again. The Bees finished 8th. This time Allen didn’t find another club to move to and stayed, which was good news for Barnet as under his guidance they were Champions in 2014-15 by one point over Bristol Rovers.
So what about that no Football League games at The Hive clause; and Barnet playing outside their catchment area? No worries, simply suspended by the authorities on a ‘temporary’ basis for 10 years. Wealdstone was forgotten about, and in fact received no compensation for the money it had spent all those years previously. Understandably Wealdstone fans have neither forgotten nor forgiven, though that does not excuse the scenes and vandalism occasioned at The Hive when the two clubs finally met with supporters in attendance in the 2021-22 season. Many Barnet fans were not happy with the move either – think of the reaction if Yeovil Town moved across the border into Dorset and found a new home in say Sherborne – and the Back 2 Barnet campaign was initially quite forceful. However, in 2018 Kleanthous bought the freehold for the site from London Borough of Harrow, thus superseding those previous lease restrictions. And who thinks the football authorities will actually enforce the catchment rules at any point? No one. So The Bees seem set to play in Harrow under the name of Barnet for the foreseeable future. The Hive was also the home for two women’s teams, Tottenham Hotspur Women and London Bees, but Spurs decamped to Brisbane Road in 2022.
Back in the EFL there were two 15th place finishes. After Martin Allen left in December 2016, they became one of those clubs that lacked direction entirely in terms of their first team management set-up. They’d given the post to Rossi Eames, their Academy Coach, in the wake of Allen’s departure, and he seemed to be quietly ticking along, which made their decision to take the job off him and install Kevin Nugent as a supposed permanent Head Coach in February 2017 look a little odd. Nugent lasted just two months, and they reinstalled Eames in a ‘what was that last two months all about’ move.
The chaos continued into the next season, 2017-18, which turned into a disaster. Eames was removed again in November, to be replaced by Mark McGhee. The former Reading boss obtained just three wins in eleven games and then he was also turfed out. At this point, someone in the Barnet boardroom said “wouldn’t it be a good idea if we appointed Graham Westley” – the man who’d done his best to relegate Newport County in the previous season before they sacked him when eleven points adrift at the bottom of League Two. Westley ended up managing two wins in eleven games, and by then Barnet were in deep trouble. The Bees therefore did what they have always done – they called for Martin Allen to rescue them; but on this occasion his five wins in eight matches at the tail end of that season still wasn’t enough and Barnet dropped out of the Football League for the third time.
Barnet’s return to the National League saw them finish in 12th position, during a 2018-19 season that was initially under veteran John Still, but with him passing the reins to his assistant Darren Currie over Christmas 2018. As a former Barnet midfielder, who finished a lengthy playing career by playing for a number of lower league and non-league sides in the London area, he seemed a more logical fit than some of the bizarre appointments the club has made, and made steady, if not spectacular, progress during his half season in charge of the club, finishing 13th.
The Covid truncated 2019-20 season saw The Bees finish 7th on PPG and make the delayed play-offs, where they beat Yeovil Town 2-0 in the first round before going out to Notts County at the semi-final stage.
After that relatively strong performance Barnet must have expected to be there or there abouts the following term but their whole season went pear-shaped. Currie and his assistant Junior Lewis both departed in August after failing to agree new contract terms. Kleanthous then reverted to one of his spasms of making a series of bizarre appointments, none of whom lasted more than a few months. Peter Beadle, who had been in the football wilderness without a job for several years, was according to Kleanthous his choice from over 100 candidates. He was sacked before Christmas. Next came Tim Flowers. He lasted three months, losing 11 of his 12 games in charge. Then it was the turn of Simon Bassey, with a role not as manager but described as “most senior coach for the first team and leading the team in training and on matchdays”. Meanwhile all sorts of comings and goings were happening upstairs too, with random titles given out to other coaches/managers/directors of this or that aspect. It was an utter shambles. Unsurprisingly Barnet finished bottom (of the 22 clubs that completed the season) of the division. Fortunately for them it was a season with no relegation from the National League Premier. Bassey departed for a coaching role with Portsmouth.
As if this wasn’t enough, for the 2021-22 campaign Kleanthous then selected Harry Kewell in August. Completely predictably, Kewell merely lengthened his CV of managerial disasters. This time he didn’t reach the end of September before being sacked. At this point some sanity returned and Dean Brennan, who actually might know his way around Non-League football, was switched from one of those random titles at the club that seem to mean something to Kleanthous, if nobody else – in this case it had been “Head of Football” – to actually running the team. The Bees eventually finished 18th.
This season, so far the merits of appointing someone who could know what they’re doing, plus a bit of stability, seem to be bearing some fruit, with Barnet looking like play-off prospects.
Barnet: We’ve Met Before
Previous Results for Yeovil Town First Team vs Barnet
| 11/02/1967 | Away | SLP | D | 1-1 | Taylor | ||
| 26/04/1967 | Home | SLP | W | 3-1 | Albury, Vowles, Harding | ||
| 06/03/1968 | Home | SLP | W | 3-1 | Weller, Mitten(2) | ||
| 04/05/1968 | Away | SLP | L | 1-4 | K Thompson | ||
| 21/09/1968 | Home | SLP | W | 1-0 | Elliott | ||
| 15/02/1969 | Away | SLP | L | 0-2 | |||
| 08/11/1969 | Away | SLP | D | 1-1 | K Thompson | ||
| 24/02/1970 | Home | SLP | W | 5-3 | Plumb, Housley(3), Davies | ||
| 09/01/1971 | Home | SLP | L | 0-3 | |||
| 20/02/1971 | Away | SLP | L | 1-2 | Weller | ||
| 09/10/1971 | Home | SLP | L | 2-3 | 2871 | Weller, Cotton | |
| 05/02/1972 | Away | SLP | D | 0-0 | 1382 | ||
| 09/09/1972 | Away | SLP | D | 0-0 | |||
| 27/01/1973 | Home | SLP | W | 2-1 | Own Goal(2) | ||
| 14/08/1973 | Away | SLP | W | 2-1 | 1025 | Clancy(2) | |
| 15/09/1973 | Home | SLP | W | 3-0 | 2336 | Walker, Cotton(2) | |
| 16/11/1974 | Home | SLP | W | 3-0 | 2103 | Housley, Brown(2) | |
| 04/01/1975 | Away | SLP | L | 1-2 | 651 | Plumb | |
| 16/02/1977 | Home | SLC4 | W | 2-1 | 1256 | Clancy, Hickton | |
| 02/01/1978 | Away | SLP | L | 1-2 | Plumb | ||
| 05/04/1978 | Home | SLP | L | 1-2 | Clancy | ||
| 31/03/1979 | Home | SLP | L | 0-1 | |||
| 30/04/1979 | Away | SLP | D | 1-1 | Finnigan | ||
| 21/11/1979 | Home | APL | W | 5-0 | 1175 | Williams, Finnigan, Green, Morrall, Housley | |
| 19/04/1980 | Away | APL | W | 3-0 | 412 | Finnigan, Morrall, Williams | |
| 24/01/1981 | Home | APL | L | 1-2 | 1246 | Bell | |
| 10/02/1981 | Away | APL | D | 4-4 | 526 | Ward, Williams, Green(2) | |
| 24/10/1981 | Home | APL | W | 4-1 | 1279 | Griffiths, Payne, Ward, Green | |
| 13/03/1982 | Away | APL | D | 0-0 | 645 | ||
| 02/10/1982 | Away | APL | D | 4-4 | 573 | Ritchie, Williams(2), Bell | |
| 13/10/1982 | Home | APL | W | 4-2 | 910 | Bell(3), Williams | |
| 28/03/1984 | Home | APL | L | 2-4 | 716 | Finnigan, Gibson | |
| 23/04/1984 | Away | APL | L | 0-2 | 554 | ||
| 13/10/1984 | Away | GOLA | L | 1-4 | 824 | James | |
| 09/03/1985 | Home | GOLA | W | 2-1 | 1388 | Gold, Ritchie | |
| 10/05/1988 | Home | Frnd | W | 3-1 | 2260 | ||
| 26/11/1988 | Away | CONF | L | 0-2 | 2059 | ||
| 15/04/1989 | Home | CONF | W | 2-1 | 2304 | Spencer, Whittingham | |
| 18/10/1989 | Home | CONF | W | 3-2 | 2337 | Blackman, Spencer, Sherwood | |
| 05/03/1990 | Home | BLT3 | W | 3-2 | 1252 | Dent(2), Spencer | |
| 07/04/1990 | Away | CONF | L | 0-1 | 2425 | ||
| 01/12/1990 | Home | CONF | L | 1-4 | 2768 | Carroll 89 | |
| 23/02/1991 | Away | CONF | L | 2-3 | 2262 | Wilson 56, 76 | |
| 02/10/2001 | Away | CONF | W | 3-2 | 1583 | Crittenden 39, Johnson 56, Ramsay 82 | |
| 16/04/2002 | Home | CONF | L | 1-2 | 2125 | Way 70 | |
| 20/08/2002 | Away | CONF | L | 1-2 | 1668 | Johnson 76 | |
| 28/12/2002 | Home | CONF | D | 0-0 | 4850 | ||
| 06/12/2003 | Home | FACR2 | W | 5-1 | 5973 | Miles 9, G Williams 18, 27, Crittenden 74, Edwards 78 | |
| 01/09/2015 | Home | FLT1 | W | 1-0 | 1203 | Own Goal 37 | |
| 12/12/2015 | Home | EFL2 | D | 2-2 | 3162 | Zoko 80, 86 | |
| 30/04/2016 | Away | EFL2 | W | 4-3 | 2379 | Dolan 55, N Smith 63, Zoko 76, Cornick 90 | |
| 10/12/2016 | Home | EFL2 | L | 0-1 | 3254 | ||
| 15/03/2017 | Away | EFL2 | D | 2-2 | 1525 | Whitfield 14, Shephard 90 | |
| 21/10/2017 | Away | EFL2 | D | 1-1 | 1751 | Khan 81 | |
| 13/02/2018 | Home | EFL2 | W | 2-0 | 2455 | Surridge 2, Zoko 90 | |
| 03/08/2019 | Away | NLP | L | 0-1 | 1666 | ||
| 14/03/2020 | Home | NLP | match never played, season subsequently decided on PPG | ||||
| 18/07/2020 | Home | NLp/o | L | 0-2 | 0 | ||
| 02/03/2021 | Away | NLP | W | 4-1 | 0 | J Smith 11, Sass-Davies 13, Murphy 58, Neufville 80 | |
| 27/03/2021 | Home | NLP | W | 3-1 | 0 | Knowles 10, Lee 24, Neufville 34 | |
| 11/12/2021 | Home | NLP | W | 1-0 | 2024 | Yussuf 9 | |
| 02/04/2022 | Away | NLP | D | 2-2 | 1393 | Knowles 8, Reid 82 | |
| 16/08/2022 | Home | NLP | L | 1-2 | 2263 | Reckord 80 | |
| 14/03/2022 | Away | NLP | L | 1-2 | 1704 | Reckord 75 | |
Results Summary For Yeovil Town First Team vs Barnet
| Home | Away | Overall | ||||||||||||
| W | D | L | F | A | W | D | L | F | A | W | D | L | F | A |
| 21 | 2 | 11 | 71 | 47 | 5 | 11 | 13 | 41 | 52 | 26 | 13 | 24 | 112 | 99 |
Barnet : Club Statistics
RECENT RESULTS
| 26/12/2022 | Boreham Wood | Home | NLP | W | 2-1 | 2571 | Kabamba 54, De Havilland 90+5 | |
| 02/01/2023 | Boreham Wood | Away | NLP | D | 1-1 | 2340 | Wynter 75 | |
| 07/01/2023 | Gateshead | Home | NLP | D | 1-1 | 1417 | Kabamba 87 | |
| 14/01/2023 | Solihull Moors | Away | FAT4R | W | 2-0 | 749 | Pritchard 44, De Havilland 79 | |
| 28/01/2023 | Chesterfield | Home | NLP | W | 3-0 | 2277 | Kabamba 33, 77, 85 | |
| 31/01/2023 | Eastleigh | Away | NLP | W | 2-0 | 2051 | De Havilland 45, Wynter 66 | |
| 03/02/2023 | Scunthorpe United | Away | NLP | W | 3-1 | 5110 | Gorman 32, 55, Moyo 66 | |
| 07/02/2023 | FC Halifax Town | Away | NLP | W | 3-1 | 1449 | Smith 22, Kabamba 67, Diarra 81 | |
| 11/02/2023 | Torquay United | Away | FAT5R | W | 2-1 | 1459 | Smith 3, 58 | |
| 14/02/2023 | Notts County | Away | NLP | L | 1-4 | 6891 | Smith 7 | |
| 18/02/2023 | Torquay United | Away | NLP | L | 1-2 | 2135 | De Havilland 78 | |
| 21/02/2023 | Altrincham | Home | NLP | L | 2-4 | 1175 | Smith 13, Pritchard 25 | |
| 25/02/2023 | Aldershot Town | Home | NLP | W | 4-1 | 1991 | Pritchard 13, Smith 64, Kanu 75, Senior 82 | |
| 28/02/2023 | Oldham Athletic | Home | NLP | L | 1-3 | 1299 | Kanu 40 | |
| 03/03/2023 | Southend United | Away | NLP | W | 1-0 | 7213 | Kanu 66 | |
| 07/03/2023 | Dorking Wanderers | Away | NLP | L | 1-2 | 1216 | Smith 12 | |
| 11/03/2023 | Maidstone United | Away | FAT6R | W | 2-2 | 2120 | Potter 23, Moyo 37, (4-3 on penalties) | |
| 14/03/2023 | Yeovil Town | Home | NLP |
ATTENDANCE STATISTICS
Highest League Attendance: 2,704 v Southend United, 01/11/2022
Lowest League Attendance: 1,152 v Dorking Wanderers, 13/09/2022
Average League Attendance: 1,751
CURRENT LEAGUE SEQUENCE STATISTICS
| Games Without A Win: | 1 | Games Without A Home Win: | 1 | |
| Games Without An Away Win: | 1 | Games Without Defeat: | 0 | |
| Games Without A Home Defeat: | 0 | Games Without An Away Defeat: | 0 | |
| Games Without A Draw: | 11 | Games Without A Score Draw: | 11 | |
| Games Without A No-Score Draw: | 35 | Games Without Scoring: | 0 | |
| Games Without Conceding: | 0 | Home Results Sequence: | WDWLWL | |
| Away Results Sequence: | DWWWLLWL | Overall Results Sequence: | WDDWWWWLLLWLWL |
Barnet : Club Information
The Hive Stadium
Camrose Avenue
Edgware
London
HA8 6AG
(Click for map)
Telephone Number: 020 8381 3800
Email: tellus@barnetfc.com
Chairman: Anthony Kleanthous
Club Secretary: John Meir
Ticketing Enquiries: Nicholas Antona
Press & Media: Howard Bloom
Manager: Dean Brennan
Capacity: 6,500
Seated: 5,419
Covered Terrace: 1,081 (home fans only)
Record Attendance: 11,026 v Wycombe Wanderers, FA Amateur Cup 4th Round 1951–52 (at Underhill); 6,215 v Brentford, FA Cup R4, 28/01/2019 (at The Hive).
Colours: shirt amber with black trim, shorts black with amber trim, socks black.
Nickname: The Bees
Programme: matchday programmes are free to read on-line (downloadable from around 9.00 a.m. on matchday) – they no longer publish a printed version for purchase. One can buy a printed team sheet (price unknown) at the club shop from c. 30 minutes prior to kick-off.
Ticketing:
When we first went to The Hive we were in a section of the West (Legends) Stand. Away fans now get the North (Sixty-Six) Stand, the newest one at the stadium, opened in 2016; an all-seater with a 1,924 capacity and an end-on view. This is filled up from Section A in the west corner, with other sections opened up if and when required. Any tickets purchased for when this fixture was originally scheduled on 13th December and then again on 17th January remain valid.
All tickets will be sold from the Barnet end. You can pre-book tickets by purchasing online via the Hive Stadium online web portal.
This allows you (eventually) to purchase E-tickets which have a barcode on them. You’ll need to right-click and download them; and then have access to a printer to be able to print them off prior to travelling to the game. If you go in via their main portal page, you must click the “Change to Away” link to make the ‘Stand Sixty-Six B’ area clickable, as its default is to only make home seats visible.
Still, that’s maybe a better option than buying tickets on the day at the Away Ticket Office behind Stand Sixty-Six… an utter shambles on our visit before last (with fans allowed), with some supporters still queuing outside up to 15 minutes after kick-off – we arrived over twenty minutes before kick-off and still missed the first ten of the match.
Disabled Info:
Wheelchair and Ambulant Disabled supporters should call The Hive Stadium directly on 0208 381 3800 option 1, then option 1 again. The club advertises 28 wheelchair bays in the West Stand and 14 in the East Stand. All disabled access tickets include entry for one carer.
Official Away Travel
The Green & White Supporters’ Club is running away travel to Barnet FC on Tuesday, March 14th, 7.45 p.m. kick-off.
Details are as follows:
Members: Adult £26.00; Concession £24.00
Non-Members: Adult £29.00; Concession £27.00
Coach departs Huish Park: 1.30 p.m.
To book, call Paul Hadlow on 07736 044570 (after 6.00 p.m. please) or email him on paulhadlow@outlook.com.
Please note: if you were booked onto the original fixture you will still need to confirm your booking with Paul.
If you are getting in touch by email, please make it clear which match you are booking for and that you give your full name, the names of people that are travelling and a contact telephone number.
You may be asked to pay a £5 deposit to reserve your seat.
Barnet : Directions To The Ground
General
Don’t go to Barnet! Their current stadium is situated in the London Borough of Harrow, six miles west from the former ground of Underhill in the London Borough of Barnet.
By Road
For most Yeovil Town fans, you’ll be coming up via the A303, then the M3, then heading clockwise around the M25 past Heathrow. Exactly what you do at that point probably depends on how busy the M25 is. If it’s running well then the ‘From the North‘ directions are probably easier to follow, so exit the M25 at Junction 21A, joining the M1 at Junction 6.
However, if you choose to get off earlier then the ‘From the West‘ directions cut the mileage somewhat at the expense of some extra London road navigation.
From the North: Exit at Junction 4 of the M1 on to the A41 (Edgware Road) signed towards Harrow/Edgware. At the first roundabout take the 3rd exit onto the A410 (signed for Stanmore). At the next roundabout take the first exit on to the A5 (the road is called Stonegrove). After just under a mile, at the junction with the A5109, turn right into Camrose Avenue. Continue along Camrose Avenue for just over half a mile and The Hive is to the right.
From the West: Exit the M25 at either Junction 15 for the M4 or Junction 16 for the M40.
If coming off at Junction 15 follow the M4 towards London, exiting at Junction 3 on to The Parkway (A312) which takes one across to Target Roundabout at Northolt.
If coming off at Junction 16 follow the M40 then A40, exiting for Target Roundabout (Northolt).
At Target Roundabout take the A312 for Harrow, passing Northolt Station to your left and South Harrow Station to your right. On approaching central Harrow (the A312 is by then called Bessborough Road) at the roundabout immediately prior to the railway line (there’s a BP garage to the right) take the right hand exit on to the A404 (Lowlands Road). Stay on the A404 (it becomes Kenton Road) until Northwick Park Roundabout, taking the second exit of this on to the A4006 (still called Kenton Road). Keep on the A4006 until, about half a mile after passing Kenton Station to your right, until taking a left at a mini-roundabout on to Charlton Road. Follow Charlton Road all the way up to Queensbury Circle (roundabout), there taking the third exit on to Taunton Way. Follow Taunton Way all the way round, and as it becomes Camrose Avenue you will see the stadium complex on the left.
NOTE: Some online maps suggest that you can reach the stadium via a road coming off Whitchurch Lane. This is a pedestrian-only path. You have to come in via Camrose Avenue.
Parking
The Hive offers on-site parking for up to 500 vehicles. As far as can tell the much-trumpeted-all-singing-all-dancing pre-book system introduced towards the end of last season has already been abandoned for matchdays – one assumes it didn’t really work effectively in practice – and it’s back to simply first-come, first-served and pay when you arrive. You’ll be pleased to know that the £2.00 price increase introduced along with the much-trumpeted-all-singing-all-dancing pre-book system has been retained even though the much-trumpeted-all-singing-all-dancing pre-book system is no longer being used: so it’s £8.00 for the privilege. Entry to the car park is via Camrose Avenue.
An alternative is to park at Canons Park Tube Station which is 24-hour, has 156 spaces, and is around 600 yards walk from the stadium (ignore the route provided by Google maps and other such apps, there’s a path off to the right, 100 yards East of Canons Park Station, that goes straight to the ground) (this footpath is currently closed). This used to be much cheaper (£2.00) on a Saturday, but perhaps they caught on football fans were using it as it is now a flat rate £6.00 at all times.
Needless to say, this is London and so if hunting for free on-street pay very careful attention to signage. The length of Camrose Avenue itself gets coned on match days so don’t expect to park there. However, exiled Glover Archie Morris reports Aldridge Avenue, HA7 1DB, about a five minute walk from the away end, has free on-street parking along its length.
By Rail
Being a mid-week evening kick-off one can’t see the whole match and get back to Yeovil on the night. This makes training this one from the West Country a non-starter.
For Glovers living in and around the capital the only (at time of writing) planned restrictions scheduled on the Overground network or Underground services on 14th March are reduced services on some sections of the Overground network (check TfL website status updates pages for details of lines affected) and closure of Waterloo & City underground line. However, there is industrial action on the Tube called for Wednesday 15th March so some services may start to wind down earlier than usual on the Tuesday night. The nearest London Underground station is Canons Park which is on the Jubilee Line – and usually less than a ten minute walk from the stadium. However NOTE: the direct footpath route across the playing fields is currently CLOSED, and the walk round by the road is about one mile (which actually makes Queensbury station, below, more convenient on this occasion).
You can also get off at Queensbury which is one stop south of Canons Park. Here it’s a slightly longer walk (0.8 of a mile, so around 15 minutes), but if coming from Waterloo or Central London it means you’re on the tube for one less stop. From Queensbury, you need to exit on the East side (right hand side) of the station and then at the roundabout turn left and walk up Turner Road for its full length. You’ll then meet Camrose Avenue, so turn right there and the ground is on your left.
Should for some reason the Northern Line fit your travel plans better then the western branch terminus at Edgware is its station nearest to The Hive, but at 1.3 miles a considerably longer walk. (Or pick up the No. 288 bus with a service about every ten minutes, which runs along Camrose Avenue – alight at St Brides Avenue stop – with a journey time of around 15 minutes).
By Bus
Should these numbers have any relevance to your journey route: the 288 and 688 run along Camrose Avenue, with St Brides Avenue (if coming from the North and East) and Bridgewater Gardens (if coming from the South) the two closest stops to the stadium; and the 79, 186 and 240 run along the B461 past Canons Park Station.
By Taxi
A selection of Edgware taxi companies can be found here.
Web Resources
Web Sites
Barnet Football Club Supporters’ Association
This used to be a well put together site, updated regularly with news and views, plus a history of the club and info on the Supporters Association. It’s now extremely sparse, with a statement saying “Barnet Football Club Supporters Association has existed since 1926. After a brief hiatus 7 Barnet FC Fans are bringing it back to represent all Barnet FC fans.” (One suspects some falling out had occurred – a situation not uncommon in fans groups – with various parties flouncing off etc.) Whatever, the last recorded update on the site concerns a meeting with the club chairman back in September 2021.
Barnet Football Club – the Official website.
Barnet FC – Official Twitter account.
Web Message Boards
Only Barnet – Fairly busy forum board, split into multiple sections.
Local Press
Barnet Post – carries some coverage of the club in the Sports section.
Barnet : Food & Drink
General :
Unless you choose the away club bar (below), there are very limited drinking options without taking a tube journey.
Club Bar :
Because away fans have been moved to the North (Sixty-Six or ’66) Stand, which has its own bar, Bar 66, the other bars at the stadium, The Hive Cafe Bar and Legends, are now home fans only. Not sure if all the bars serve exactly the same range, but expect fairly typical football stadium multinational keg: Heineken Lager, John Smith’s Smooth and Guinness is all recall seeing there on draught during previous visits. It’ll be served in plastic as well.
They have had Beavertown’s Neck Oil on recently, but this was when Tottenham Hotspur Women were playing and Beavertown have a tie in with Spurs (including an actual brewing facility built in to the Tottenham Stadium) so whether that option continues now Spurs Women have departed to Brisbane Road for the 2022-23 season remains to be seen.
Food options were burgers and cold filled baguettes.
Local Pubs :
You’d think that if you picked any spot in London that you’d be safely assured of a glittering array of local pubs and beers galore. Not in this area! As far as am aware there are no pubs at all left in Stanmore. The Man In The Moon – a Spoons – drove all the others out of business over the years by undercutting their prices… then itself closed down in February 2016. There’s two bars in the area of Queensbury Station: Buckley’s Bar (half a mile west) and Jameson’s Bar (half a mile east). Both are Irish bars focusing on sports (particularly broadcasts from Ireland) and Irish music. The closest place to the stadium is Moranos (below), another Irish Bar, right outside Canons Park Station.
Apart from those, the closest actual pubs are in Edgware (something over the mile east) and Harrow (something over the two miles west). None are probably worth the time and effort.
We have always preferred to drink around Waterloo and then take the tube up from there. There are masses of options within one or two hundred yards, with a few suggestions (in no particular order) being: The Hole In The Wall; Waterloo Tap; Fire Station; King’s Arms and a recently opened BrewDog that claims (it’s disputed) to be the largest pub in the UK.
Moranos: Featured as it’s the closest outlet to the stadium, an Irish bar located outside Canons Park tube station, just north of the stadium. No real ale. You’ll find Guinness (obviously) and Amstel, Birra Moretti and those kind of lines, on draft. Appeared last year to have added Beavertown’s Neck Oil. Food is Pizzas and a couple of salad options. Has both Sky and BT Sports. Live music and a beer garden. However, although have found no concrete evidence that it has closed, it should be noted that both its website and Facebook page have fairly recently been deleted. This could perhaps merely be a change of ownership… or maybe it has ceased trading?
Moranos, 12 Station Parade, Canons Park, Edgware, London, HA8 6RW. Tel: 020 8951 5353. Map: Moranos.
Likelihood the Natives Will Understand You :
Put on your best Bazza Fry accent, call everyone a geezer, drop all letter H’s, and no-one will even notice that you’re not from these parts.
Top-Tip :
Unless you’re happy to take a pint of something pretty dismal in a plastic cup at the ground, drink around the Waterloo area. The choice out here is sparse to say the least!
Local Amenities : There are none.
Other Points Of Interest : There are none.
[No responsibility is taken for any inaccuracies. This page is entirely the product of bias and prejudice.]