retired_edmari

Saturday December 8, 2001
FA Cup Second Round
Barnet vs Northampton Town
Underhill, London

The next junction on the road to Cardiff was here, and I naturally had the desire to carry straight on and at least equal last year's achievement of Round Three.

Northampton weren't going to be the easiest of opponents though. They found themselves in mid-table a division above us, and reached Round Four of the FA Cup last year before losing to Manchester United. I had a feeling this wouldn't be the easiest tie to negotiate our way past.

That feeling grew all the more evident when Andy Morrow gave the visiting side an early lead. Aside from this early spell of pressure though the game was more in our way, and we just needed a little bit more precision in our attacking to be able to beat the in-form Lee Baxter.

The second half began with more promise, and bringing on Jørgensen gave a few more options to a midfield struggling to control the match. The equaliser would eventually come from Pitcher, about half an hour from the end, and would have to be enough in the end. We'll now face a tough replay for a place in Round Three, where - if successful - we'll be visiting Oxford United.

Barnet: Bergwall 7, Duff 7, Jellyman 6 (Victory on 55, 6), Arnefjord 7, Bayliss 5, PITCHER 8, Porter 6 (Jørgensen on 55, 7), Sanne 8, Andreasson 7, Blidberg 7, Huckerby 7
Northampton: Baxter 8, McGowan 7, Phelan 7, Green 7, Aspin 8, Curtis 7, Dixon 8, Lee 7, Gabbiadini 7 (Morris on 72, 6), Morrow 8, Perpetuini 7 (Durkan on 61, 7)

Final Score: Barnet 1 (Pitcher 61) Northampton 1 (Morrow 11)
Attendance: 4,010

retired_edmari

Tuesday December 11, 2001
Autoglass Trophy South First Round
Barnet vs Swansea City
Underhill, London

So soon after the FA Cup match this was never going to be easy, and with that replay plus the Christmas period nearing all we needed was a busy schedule at this point of the month. This match, just to rain on my hopes of an easy schedule, would therefore last 120 minutes or so.

We took the lead twice, once in each half and both times through Chris Blidberg, and looked the stronger side at most times. But Prokas struck to equalise in the first half and Matt Bound brought the Division Two side level moments before the end.

In this competition though the match ends on the night, so we went into a period of extra time. It was under the golden goal rule, so one slip up will cost big.

Cusack was the hero of the night, landed Swansea progression in the 119th minute with a well-taken goal. Still got the FA Cup, I guess.

Barnet: Bergwall 8, Duff 8, Jellyman 7, Arnefjord 9, Bayliss 6, Pitcher 7, Porter 7, Sanne 7, Andreasson 7, BLIDBERG 9, Huckerby 7
Swansea: Hitchcock 8, Jones 7, Underwood 9, Bound 8, Dobson 8, Thomas 8, Roberts 8, Prokas 7, Goodwin 6 (Morgan on 56, 7), Mutton 6 (Cusack on 97, 8), Coates 8

Final Score: Barnet 2 (Blidberg 26, 74) Swansea 3 (Prokas 34, Bound 90, Cusack 119)
Attendance: 660

retired_edmari

Saturday December 15, 2001
Third Division, Game 21
Barnet vs Plymouth Argyle
Underhill, London

Today started a run of 5 games in a fortnight leading up to the end of 2001, and with the oppoonents facing a similar task I think both of us simply took things a little easy this afternoon.

It was a perfect bore-draw. None of the attacking players particular stood out or created much resembling opportunitys, and the keepers were the best players in each team simply for keeping out the few chances that did arise.

Barnet: Bergwall 8, Duff 7, Jellyman 6, Arnefjord 8, Bayliss 7, Pitcher 6, Porter 6, Sanne 6, Andreasson 7, Blidberg 6, Huckerby 7
Plymouth: SHEFFIELD 9, Fleming 7, Amankwah 8, Glansk, Taylor, Bastow 8, McGregor 7, Black 6 (Blom on 46, 6), Rose 6 (Gritton on 63, 7), Andersson 6, Phillips 7

Final Score: Barnet 0 Plymouth 0
Attendance: 4,043

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Wednesday December 19, 2001
FA Cup Second Round Replay
Northampton Town vs Barnet
The Sixfields Stadium, Northampton

We knew what we had to do. Defeat was not an option. A place in the Third Round was at stake, and the match against Oxford gives us realistic hope of going further. The need for money is ever increasing here, so if nothing else a decent Cup run will help on that front.

To be honest though I wasn't riding high on a wave of confidence. We've struggled along to recent results with little passion. On top of that Northampton had the better chances from the start, and ultimately had nearly twice as many as us come the final whistle.

Today though there was only one team taking those chances; Barnet. Blidberg's opener was somewhat overdue as he'd already threatened a couple of times, but was enough to give us the half time lead and looked like being enough to win it.

It would've been, too - Northampton never troubled Niclas enough and couldn't level the tie - but we made damn sure anyway. A goal each for the two Swedes up front put the result beyond any doubt and saw us safely onto the next corner along the road to Cardiff...

Northampton: Baxter 6, McGowan 8, Phelan 6, Aspin 9, Green 7, Lee 6 (Wallace on 63, 6), Dixon 7, Curtis 8, Gabbiadini 6 (Thompson on 57, 7), Morrow 6, Durkan 7
Barnet: Bergwall 8, Duff 7, Jellyman 7, Arnefjord 7, Bayliss 7, Pitcher 8, Porter 7, Sanne 7, Andreasson 7, BLIDBERG 9, Huckerby 7

Final Score: Northampton 0 Barnet 3 (Blidberg 24, 71, Andreasson 76)
Attendance: 4,603

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Saturday December 22, 2001
Third Division, Game 22
Barnet vs Hereford United
Underhill, London

The final match before Christmas could ensure us of a merry break. Of course few of us had much in the way of plans, having the responsibility of return to work on Boxing Day at Macclesfield.

Early on we created more, but Andreasson struggled to convert anything and hit a couple of efforts harmlessly wide of Scott Cooksey's goal. This allowed Hereford to slowly find their pace, and they took the lead when skipper Phil Robinson struck from close range to end Bergwall's run of about 150 minutes without conceding.

At half time we were behind but somewhat undeservedly, as we had the better of those first 45 minutes. Finally we made the pressure count when Scott Huckerby levelled just short of the hour mark. It could swing either way now and it was looking like one good break would be the decider. It was, and it was ours when Blidberg added another to his superb tally to wrap up our 14th win of the season and send us into the festive season just 5 points shy of Millwall.

Barnet: Bergwall 8, Duff 8, Jellyman 8, Arnefjord 9, Bayliss 6, Pitcher 7, Larsson 7, Sanne 8, Andreasson 7, Blidberg 7, HUCKERBY 9
Hereford: Cooksey 6, Porter 6, James 7, Warner 7, Wright 6 (Bayliss on 62, 6), Robinson 8, Bolder 7, McIndoe 5 (Langley on 50, 6), Moran 7, Piearce 7, Parry 7

Final Score: Barnet 2 (Huckerby 57, Blidberg 64) Hereford 1 (Robinson 29)
Attendance: 3,768

retired_edmari

Wednesday December 26, 2001
Third Division, Game 23
Macclesfield Town vs Barnet
The Moss Rose Ground, Macclesfield

The busy last few weeks finally began to kick in. That, or we all had a dodgy turkey yesterday. Either way, we never looked on form here and were very lucky to go ahead through Daniel Arnefjord's goal.

It wouldn't last though, as Glover levelled the match midway through the second half. A couple of subs came on but didn't have the time to give us the extra options we craved, and we eventually went down to Darren Armstrong's late winner.

Macclesfield: Almeida 8, Abbey 7, ADAMS 8, Lomax 6, Came 5 (Tierney on 61, 6), Jones 8, Hill 6 (Pepper on 87, 6), Gibson 8, Whitehead 6 (Armstrong on 61, 7), Glover 8, Owers 8
Barnet: Bergwall 7, Duff 7, Jellyman 8, Arnefjord 7, Bayliss 7, Pitcher 7, Larsson 6, Sanne 5 (Porter on 73, 6), Andreasson 7, Blidberg 6 (Fritzdorf on 81, 6), Huckerby 6

Final Score: Macclesfield 2 (Glover 67, Armstrong 81) Barnet 1 (Arnefjord 41)
Attendance: 2,052