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First County Visit:	Saturday 9th April 1994
Competition:	Endsleigh League Division 2 – (Tier 3)
Result:	Barnet 0 – 0 Stockport County
Attendance:	1,798
Away Trip:	65
Away Day:	278
County Line-up	1 John Keeley; 2 Sean Connelly; 3 Lee Todd; 4 David Frain; 5 Mike Flynn; 6 Dave Miller; 7 Jim Gannon; 8 Bill Williams; 9 Kevin Francis; 10 Chris Beaumont (14 Martin James); 11 Andy Preece
Manager:	Danny Bergara
County Visits:	5

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A GROUND FOUNDED IN NON-LEAGUE AND SADLY MISSED (BY ME)

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Looking back through the records they were way down the non-league hierarchy at the time. But all of that changed with the advent of two names that became as good as notorious in football.  Stan Flashman was the self-styled ‘King of the Touts’. He claimed he could get a ticket for any event anywhere, and with occasionally lurid coverage in the press it’s fair say that he was a somewhat iffy character. In 1985 Barnet were heading for receivership. Flashman stepped in and bought the club for what was reported as a miserly £50,000. He installed another character as manager.

Barry Fry, another shall we say colourful individual, had previously been manager at Underhill from 1979-85, before upping sticks to move to Maidstone.  The lure of Barnet, and more likely Flashman, drew him back to Hertfordshire eight months later. 

It was hardly a partnership made in heaven, (Flashman sacking Fry a reputed eight times in a 7-year spell), but it seemed to work on the field.  Barnet were promoted to the League in 1991 after three times finishing second under Fry. In their second season in the FL, despite all sort of back room controversy, they were promoted to Division 2.  But our first trip to Underhill, in April 1994, might never have taken place.   

At the end of 1992/93 Barnet had been promoted from Division 3.  Success on the field assuredly.  But off it the place was a complete shambles.  Rows about the club accounts and players wages had beset them.,  Fry had left them a couple of months before the end of the campaign and the summer saw a resolution put to the EFL member clubs to expel them. It went to a vote, and very surprisingly to some they marginally won the vote.  However, a tribunal nullified the players contracts and the team which had gained promotion was broken up.  Their survival did however mean that it would be a new place to visit, albeit towards the end of the season.  It was to be the 66th stadium I had seen County play at.

I remember that first trip was on the Fingerpost Flyer.  Run in those days by Jim Wilkinson, a former railwayman, the Flyer always set off early enough to stop for refreshment at one of the Railway clubs.  This one was in Watford and a pleasant time was had before we set off to head for Underhill.  We still had lots to play for, standing 3^rd in table, 10 points behind leaders Reading, but only 5 points below Plymouth with the advantage of 4 games in hand.  After their travails the previous summer Barnet were booked for a swift return to Division 3, with a 5-0 pasting at Burnley earlier in the week having confirmed their fate.  The omens looked good for 3 points.

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With these positive thoughts we entered the ground.  It was essentially born out of non-league, which of course it had been home to for the majority of Barnet’s history, since opening in 1907.  The stadium was pretty much hemmed in by housing on three sides, and a cricket ground at one end.  (On a later visit in late spring 2006 I arrived early and spent an hour watching Barnet CC in action.  Research tells me that sadly it fell out of use for the summer game for a period shortly after the football club moved to The Hive).  The sheer logistics of Underhill meant that it was inevitable that at some point the club would have to move – there was simply no room for expansion, nor the construction of stands of any size given the ‘right to light’ required for the surrounding homeowners.

The Main Stand, (the only construction of any size on the ground), straddled the half-way line, with room for only around 800.  Interestingly the stand roof supported two of the floodlight pylons.  Underhill may have fond memories for Barnet fans, but it is hardly writ large in football folklore.  It did however have the ‘honour’ of hosting the very first floodlit match televised live. The BBC showed the game against Wealdstone in October 1946.  Sadly the lights at the time were insufficient for what must have been primitive TV cameras at the time and transmission had to cease 10 minutes from time””  Whether the watching public were deprived of an exciting finish is something on which the ‘football trivia’ books are silent!!

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In 1994 the two end terraces were uncovered, and barely more than 10 steps high.  A covered terrace erected along the touchline.  Again, no real depth to it, but the cover was low enough for a decent atmosphere to be generated.  It was where the County fans were positioned but there was precious little meaningful action to get excited about.  A scoreless draw.  It turned out to be the first in a 10-game unbeaten run to the end of the season, but with only 4 victories, it was insufficient to challenge the automatic promotion places and we had to settle for the play-offs. 

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It was another goal-less encounter when we returned just over 12 years later.  A game just as crucial, but for all the wrong reasons.  Adrift after the Macclesfield debacle on Boxing Day 2005, a change of manager with Chris Turner sacked and being replaced by Jim Gannon, things had improved significantly, with 33 points from 21 games.  But all was still to play for.  With two relegation places to the Conference ‘up for grabs’ there were still eight teams involved, and we were one of them.  In the event of Torquay and Oxford winning both their remaining games we knew that we had to win both as well.  There was the game at Barnet and the following week against top of the table Carlisle.

The encounter drew a decent crowd, with a big County following. Four days previously we had been thrashed, (4-0), at Torquay in one of the most desperate performances I have ever seen, so confidence wasn’t high. But similarly for Barnet.  We were on the same points, and separated solely by goal difference, (Barnet being 7 better off).  It led to a torrid afternoon for all present.  The fear of losing trumped any aspiration of winning.  By 4.50 the relative positions of the two teams hadn’t changed, but elsewhere Torquay had won at Carlisle; Oxford had drawn whilst Rushden had been relegated.  There was one game left, and 7 teams battling to avoid the other drop position. 

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All we had to do was better the result of any one of Oxford; Torquay; Barnet; Notts County or Macclesfield to have achieved the great escape.  The problem was that Carlisle would be our opposition.  They had all but captured the title but would need a point.  The events seven days later provided once of the most tension ridden afternoons I have ever spent.  But more of that on the Home Games: 2006 post.

Just over 10 months later, we returned to Underhill in different circumstances.  A couple of months earlier we had exited the FA Cup at nearby Watford.  Gannon then went and made a loan signing, replacing Jamie Spencer in goal with a young lad from Wolves. It’s probably fair to say that few players will have made a more successful start to their careers.  As a keeper a clean sheet is always the objective.  The newcomer went not once, but eight times better than that.  It was of course Wayne Hennessy.  Nine games; nine wins, and not a goal conceded.  Highlights from each and every one of the games can be seen on the StockportCounty1883 You Tube Channel

Barnet away was scheduled to be the tenth in a row, and it looked to be on target when Tes Bramble gave us the lead on the half hour.  But, sadly, 854 minutes into his league career Hennessey conceded his first goal, and we went onto lose the game 3-1.  It was the start of a disastrous run, with only 2 wins in the last 10 games, and despite a 5 goal win at the Darlington Arena on the last day we missed out on the play-offs, and had to wait a further 12 months.

My last visit to Underhill was just after Christmas 2010.  It was what turned out to be the relegation season.  The season was 20 games old, and we had won a mere 5, and stood 21^st.  Snow lay on the ground, but it was handy that we, as a family, were spending the New Year at my sister-in-law’s near Winchester.  It was an 80-mile trip but infinitely better than the 192 miles from home.  So, a ride up the M3 and round the M25 it was.  It hardly drew the punters out, with 2,045 braving the elements.  We won 3-1.  I was to see us win only 4 more times in the Football League, and this was the penultimate away win. 

Within a week Paul Simpson had been sacked and one of the most dreadful 4 months I have ever experienced following the Hatters ensued.  Whether or not Simpson would have saved us from the drop is open to question, (although there are a variety of views about this).  I’ve got an open mind but have often wondered if the sacking hadn’t taken place, and survival had been achieved, how different my last decade of watching County might have been.

My next trip to Barnet was in late 2018, for an FA Cup tie.  But not to Underhill.  That had long gone, and Barnet had moved to Edgware, not even in the town of their name.  I will write more extensively about The Hive in due course, but as ever with these moves, the loss of Underhill might have been a financial and logistical necessity, but saw another traditional stadium consigned to the history books.

May 2020

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VISITS

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Day	Date	Competition	Tier / Round	Opponents	Res	F	A	Crowd	Away Day
Sat	09/04/94	Endsleigh League Division 2	Tier 3	Barnet	D	0	0	1,798	278
Sat	29/04/06	Coca-Cola Football League – League 2	Tier 4	Barnet	D	0	0	3,873	555
Sat	10/03/07 (Highlights)	Coca-Cola Football League – League 2	Tier 4	Barnet	L	1	3	2,647	575
Sat	26/04/08	Coca-Cola Football League – League 2	Tier 4	Barnet	L	1	2	3,074	604
Tues	28/12/10	npower Football League – League 2	Tier 4	Barnet	W	3	1	2,045	665

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ON MY JOURNEY WITH COUNTY AROUND 180 GROUNDS

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Previously – HOME PARK Next stop – TWERTON PARK