The Bee "fan" in Australia is Andy Crosier and he recently met up with a Barnet legend Kenny Lowe......what a player!
Life
long time Bees fan Andy Crosier emigrated to Brisbane in Australia in
2012 but still religiously follows the Bees on social media and
Barnet Player. There he meet Veronica who became his wife in October
2013. Andy is now a Community Coach at his local club Brisbane Roar
in the Australian A League, who also play in Amber and Black by the
way, and last week they entertained Perth Glory managed by one of
Andy's, and probably all Barnet fans of the era, heroes in Kenny
Lowe.
It
seems that Kenny was very chuffed to be contacted by Andy and met up
with before the game to talk “Barnet”. The prized “selfie”
and a signed 1991/2 Bees shirt can be seen below.
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| Kenny and Andy |
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| Shirt from 1992 |
Why
was Kenny so special? Because he is arguably the finest creative
midfielder Barnet has ever fielded and was the lynch pin of the side
that eventually won the GM Conference trophy in 1991 and promotion to
Division 2 in 1993. He was compared to Tottenham & England
midfielder Glen Hoddle which was a fantastic compliment indeed but to
us Barnet supporters Glen Hoddle was actually the Kenny Lowe of the
First Division!
County
Durham born in 1961 he was a long time target of Barry Fry and
eventually signed for us in January 1991 for what was then a whopping
£40,000 fee. This period saw other high profile players, the calibre
of Nicky Evans (£20,000 from Wycombe) and Mark Carter (£40,000 from
Runcorn), join or rejoin the club and basically dot the i’s and
cross the t’s for the run in to the GM Conference title. Lowe’s
first game for Barnet was on January 26th against Bath
City at Underhill when the following team secured a comfortable 2-0
(Clarke and Durham) in front of 2,096.
Gary
Phillips, Paul Wilson, Richard Nugent, Gary Poole, Geoff Cooper, Paul
Richardson, Kenny Lowe, Harry Willis, David Tomlinson, Nicky Evans,
Andy Clarke. Subs Gary Bull and Kevin Durham.
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| The above shirt worn by the Master |
Andy
asked him what were the circumstances leading up to him signing at
Barnet "Well I was very happy at Barrow but the Chairman said we
have had a big offer for you and we are going to have to sell. At
first I dug my heals in and said I wasn't moving but when he told me
it was Barry Fry I remembered the first time that I had met him. It
was at Wembley after Barrow's FA Trophy win against Leek, this little
fat man grabbed me and said, 'you are gonna sign for me one day'. I
remember thinking who the f**k is that? It was Barry of course and I
wish now that I had met him when I was 18 and not 29 because
basically he turned me into what a call a 'proper' player".
Andy
asked if he remembered much about the game at Wycombe Wanderers
that set up the title win on a very wet and windy night?
"I remember the whole team playing brilliantly on the night and I scored
the third goal. Gary Bull had put us 2-0 up very early on"
Lowe
was in the line up for the promotion 4-2 winning game at Fisher and
his curling effort, which hit the bar, rebounded perfectly for Harry
Willis to head the first goal. His corner was met by David Howell to
score Barnet's second goal. He didn't score many himself but so vivid
is the 35-yard curler against Halifax at Underhill as is the
thunderous free kick at Gillingham. It seems that all his goals were
special but then he was a very special player.
"Myself,
Spike (Mark Carter) and Showls (Paul Showler) all trained without the
team as we all lived in the North and had jobs. We used to meet up at
a Service Station and share a car to games all over the country. It
was crazy really but we all three of us loved playing for Barnet.
Lots of big Egos but the whole team were great guys and some
seriously talented individuals when you look at the list. Gary Bull,
David Howell, Nicky Evans, Harry Willis, Gary Poole and my favourite,
little Frankie Murphy. I loved playing alongside him”
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| Mark Carter scoring at Kettering with Kenny in pursuit |
He
continued “I also can recall very clearly the first game Barnet
played in the Football League against Crewe when we lost 7-4. We all thought Barry Fry was going to burst when he walked into the
changing room after the game but he calmly hung his flat cap up on a
peg and said 'F**king hell, many more games like that and we will
have to make the stadium bigger!'. He just loved entraining the
public. The next game was 5-5 against Brentford and then the
following week we beat Lincoln away 6-0”.
When
asked about leaving he reflected “The Chairman Stan Flashman was an
amazing character but also a very difficult man to work for. The club
was in a serious financial situation and that was really tough
because we felt we had a magnificent set of players had they stayed
together but so many of them weren't getting paid. Spit (Gary
Phillips) was having an extension built at his house and was living
with a hole in his wall for 3 months until Barry I think helped him
out. I was relatively Ok as I had a job alongside my playing but some
of the lads were in dire straights. It was just the way it was at the
time and I didn't want to leave”.
After
that Summer of 1993 he joined Stoke City before linking up with Fry
again at Birmingham City.After spells of player/managing at Gateshead
and Barrow he joined Perth Glory FC in 2003. Firstly, even in his
40's, he starred as a player and then as Assistant Coach. He was
given the Head Coach position in April 2013,
I
have witnessed some imaginative midfielders the likes of Gerry Ward,
John Margerrison and Nicky Bailey in my time as a Barnet supporter
but Kenny Lowe was probably the most entertaining of all. With ball
tricks, pinpoint 40 yard passes that any ordinary player could only
dream about plus the ability to completely bamboozle a marker with a
super fast body turn and flick of the ball reminiscent of Johann
Cruyff at his peak. That ‘show-boat’ move is fairly commonplace
nowadays but few players had mastered it like Lowe at the time. He is
without doubt installed in my all time Barnet line up (and obviously
Andy's too) and I suspect just about every other Barnet fans’
favourite line up who were privileged to witness the cool skills of
Kenny Lowe at Underhill.
Kenny
Lowe Appearances 75 Goals 7
The
result from Brisbane? A 1-0 win for the Roar in front of around
14,000 which has put then top of the table!
Reckless
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