August 20 - Barry’s Bombastic Barnet

AS THE phoenix club Aldershot Town FC are getting used to life as a Football League club, we thought we’d go back to another side that were making their League bow in back in 1991.

Barnet FC were promoted to what was then known as Division 4 after 103 years kicking around in the various Non-League institutions since their formation when they won the Vauxhall Conference with a reputation for fast, attacking football.

This reputation was strengthened by their early performances in their first season in the League, such as in their game today in 1991 when they drew 5-5 with Brentford in the League Cup. This came days after the Bees had lost 7-4 at home to Crewe as they began to make Kevin Keegan’s Newcastle sides of the mid-90s look dull.

Barnet were under the stewardship of colourful manager Barry Fry who was in his second spell at the club after he was brought back to Underhill following Stan Flashman’s purchase of the club in 1985 when they were heading for the brink of receivership.

Flashman was another of those characters we love so much here at OTFD. His first venture into the world of football was as a well-known ticket tout that boasted he could obtain tickets from anything from the Cup Final to the Queen’s garden parties at Buckingham Palace. Flashman and Fry enjoyed a tempestuous relationship, with the chairman sacking and reinstating his manager on no less than eight occasions.

This dynamic duo lead Barnet to the play-offs in their first season of League football where they would lose ton Blackpool in the semi finals. They would go one better the next season when they achieved automatic promotion to the third flight, but not without the help of some dodgy dealings on Flashman’s behalf.

At the end of the season disparaging allegations came out over the club accounts and players’ wages, which led to an expulsion vote at a Football League EGM which the club narrowly survived. However, they would then lose most of the side that got them promoted after a tribunal nullified the players’ contracts and the hastily assembled squad were relegated next season.

Following that another spell in the Conference followed when the club lost their League status in 2001. They yo-yoed their way back into League Two in 2005 and have not started well this term, losing their first two games and being knocked out of the League Cup.

See a fascinating documentary on the dodgy goings-on at Underhill in the early 1990s below and check out what else happened today here. We’ll be back tomorrow for more of the same so don’t go changing.

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