Barnet’s second great escape

Monday, 09/05/2011

by Lucy Waldon, Shoot's Barnet blogger

A terrible sense of déjà vu swept across Barnet this last week – it was only last year we were in the same position: League status survival on the final day of the season.

We managed the Great Escape then, beating already-promoted Rochdale 1-0 at home, whilst Burton’s victory sent Grimsby down. This time we played hosts to a Port Vale side who had won their previous match 7-2 – and were hoping Aldershot Town could get a result at Lincoln City.

Saturday couldn’t have come around any slower: nerves were strained all week and even the most optimistic of Bees couldn’t believe we could do it again, for the second consecutive season.

Underhill was well and truly buzzing come three o’clock – a bumper crowd of 4,478 got behind the boys and it was amazing to see how much support there was. We’ve not had the best of seasons, undoubtedly; crowds had been diminishing for a while – but it was great to see everyone pulling together!

We attacked from the whistle with shots raining in on the Vale goal, even though we were playing up the slope first half! How we weren’t at least 3-up at half time, I’ll never know – as it was, it was 0-0, with a similar score line at Sincil Bank.

An Izale McLeod penalty won the game for us in the 48th minute. The crowd went crazy; everyone was jumping into each other, punching the air, hugs and kisses were exchanged – but in the backs of our minds, we were still nervous; anything less than a victory would spell the end of our six-year tenure in the Football League.

Phones were constantly in hands, pressing refresh on the remaining League 2 scores. Jumps and cheers from the South Stand suggested Aldershot were a goal-up, and that was soon quickly followed by a second.

Six minutes of added time at the end were an absolute killer, although by that point, City were 3-down and Vale didn’t have too many opportunities at our goal. The final whistle was greeted by a pitch invasion – and a pure sense of elation.

If you haven’t already, look at some of the pictures of the aftermath; I still cannot put into words the feelings I had at 5pm.

We had staged the Great Escape… again!

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