Barnet F.C.
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Barnet Football Club are an English football team from Barnet, a town on the northern edge of Greater London. They currently play in the Nationwide Conference. In March 2004 they were in one of the play off positions, but failed to gain promotion to League Two, the lowest flight of the Football League. In the 2004-05 season they won the Conference Championship, to return to the Football League after an absence of four years.
Club history
The club has been in existence since 1888 and has always boasted a loyal fan base. The original club was disbanded in 1901, but a new club, Alston Works F.C. (later Barnet Alston), was founded almost immediately. They moved to their current ground at Underhill, Barnet Lane, in 1907. After combining with The Avenue F.C. prior to World War I, they changed their name to Barnet F.C. in 1919. The club turned professional in 1965.
Affectionately known by fans as The Bees, Barnet play in an amber strip with black trim. Their top current player is striker Giuliano Grazioli, who has been at the club twice and has also had two spells at Peterborough United. Previous players have included Saint Lucia international Ken Charlery.
Barnet F.C joined the Fourth Division of the Football League on winning the GM Vauxhall Conference championship in 1991. Their early reputation was of playing fast, crazy football, a reputation only enhanced by their first ever league match (which they lost 4-7 to Crewe Alexandra). In their first season of league football the club reached the promotion playoffs but lost to Scunthorpe in the semi finals. Soon afterwards chairman Stan Flashman walked out on the club which almost went out of business because it could not pay its players' wages and had failed to pay a £50,000 fine for breach of rules. In spite of this, Barnet finished third in the new Division Three and secured the final automatic promotion spot. Manager Barry Fry, however, left Barnet and was replaced by the former England goalkeeper Ray Clemence.
Barnet's first season in Division Two ended in relegation and Clemence left in 1995 to be replaced by Terry Bullivant (after a brief caretaker stint by Alan Mullery). But the club was unable to sustain a real promotion challenge back in Division Three, and in 2001 lost its league status after ten years following a season which had seen John Still resign and briefly be replaced by Tony Cottee before Still was reinstated. Still resigned again shortly after Barnet's return to the Conference and was replaced by Peter Shreeves. Shreeves left after one year to be replaced by Martin Allen, who in turn left the club in March 2004 (to take charge at Brentford) and the club's manager now is Paul Fairclough.
The long standing BBC Football commentator John Motson is a supporter, or at least has strong ties with the club having either grown up nearby and/or worked for a local paper in his early days as a journalist. He seems to mention Barnet at every possible moment, even when commentating on England World Cup matches!
Club vs. Council
Despite success on the pitch, off it Barnet FC have suffered at the hands of the council in recent times. There has always been problems with the ground, Underhill, which is in need of modernisation. While the council have publicly said they will do what they can to help the club, this help has never materialised. Attempts by the club to sort out the ground issue, either by making improvements to the current site or by finding a site elsewhere in the borough, have been blocked. The Keep Barnet Alive movement have been central to fighting Barnet FC's corner on this issue.
Honours
- FA Amateur Cup winners 1946
- Football Conference champions 1991, 2005; runners-up 1987, 1988, 1990.
- Southern League Division 1 champions 1966
- Southern League Division 1 (South) champions 1977
- Athenian League champions 1931, 1932, 1947, 1948, 1959, 1964, 1965; runners-up 1938, 1960, 1962, 1963
- FA Trophy runners-up 1972
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League competitions |
Cup competitions | |
| FA Premier League | FA Cup | |
| The Football League (Champ, 1, 2) | England (men) | League Cup |
| Football Conference (Nat, N, S) | FA Community Shield | |
| Northern Premier League (Prem, 1) | (women) | Football League Trophy |
| Southern League (Prem, 1W, 1E) | List of clubs | FA Trophy |
| Isthmian League (Prem, 1, 2) | FA Vase | |
| English football league system | Records | FA NLS Cup |
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