Nick Sandamas celebrates Barnet FC’s National League title success

The scoreboard at Barnet FC's stadium, The Hive, with the score 4-0 on it. — The Bees clinched the title with a 4-0 win against Aldershot at The Hive (Credit – Nick Sandamas)

Saturday 27th April 2024 was a sombre day at The Hive as the Bees were played off the park by Solihull Moors in the play off semi finals meaning that they had to prepare for another season in the National League, but twelve months later sadness turned to joy as the Bees clinched the title and a return to the EFL for the first time since 2018.

Days after that disappointment against the Moors, boss Dean Brennan went to town in the transfer market, signing twelve new players including the permanent signing of midfield kingpin Anthony Hartigan.

An unbeaten pre-season was followed by a stuttering start to the league campaign, with three defeats from the opening seven games, alongside early wins including a 7-0 thrashing of Tamworth.

Then the Bees went on a seven match unbeaten run, including a win over local rivals Wealdstone and progression to the FA Cup first round.

Successive defeats followed against Solihull Moors and then to title challengers York to leave the Bees trailing in third place.

What followed was quite astonishing as the Bees went on a magnificent 25 match unbeaten league run which put them well clear at the top of the pile by the first week of April with the title within sight.

The only defeats suffered during that period were to Exeter City in the FA Cup and to Altrincham in the FA Trophy.

Highlights during that memorable long unbeaten run included a 4-3 win at Dagenham & Redbridge after coming back from a 3-1 deficit and a stoppage time Ryan Glover goal to salvage a point from a six-goal Boxing Day thriller against Sutton to maintain their unbeaten home record.

Probably the signing of the new year was goalkeeper Owen Evans from Cheltenham to replace the out of sorts Nick Hayes.

In his 20 games for the club, he conceded a paltry seven goals and, in his first 13 games in the league, conceded only one goal.

Bees’ top goalscorer for the last two seasons, Nicke Kabamba departed to Bromley which rather surprised The Hive faithful but seemed to galvanise the team.

The most crucial game in February was the visit of fellow title chasers York.

The Bees put on a brilliant display of attacking football to brush aside their visitors 3-1 and go seven points clear.

The 2-1 defeat to Braintree which ended that long unbeaten run was then followed by successive draws allowing York to close the gap to four points with three to play.

However Easter Monday brought relief as two Mark Shelton penalties put the leaders on the way to a 3-1 win at Sutton and, when York could only draw, a win against Aldershot would spark celebrations.

And what a party it was as in front of a sell out Hive: an early Shelton penalty calmed the nerves, with the Bees eventually running out 4-0 winners to seal the title and remain unbeaten at home throughout the season with 18 wins and five draws from 23 games.

Both Anthony Hartigan and Danny Collinge lifted the National League title as the Bees celebrated with their fans.

A final day win at Fylde capped a fine season with the win giving the Bees the magical 100-points for the first time in their history.

The Bees broke plenty of records along the way including the longest run of away games without conceding a goal (a run of eight successive games from 14th January to 22nd March) and going unbeaten at home in a league season for the first time since the 1976/77 season.

Already preparations for the upcoming League Two campaign are underway with some players being released, among them stalwart Ben Coker.

However Brennan has also started shopping, bringing in defenders Ollie Kensdale from Eastbourne Boro and both Adam Senior and Ryan Galvin from FC Halifax.

So as we look forward to the first Bees Football League campaign since the 2017/18 season – and for the gaffer (his first ever at managerial level) – we wait to see what impact they will make.

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