50 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK

April 4th 1970 was the biggest game I had ever witnessed at that point in my Barnet supporting career.

Barnet v Macclesfield Town FA Trophy Semi Final

How many of you were supporting the club in 1970? How many of you were not even born?

I saw a thread on the Barnet Message board about "30 years ago" and the 0-2 defeat against Darlington in the Vauxhall Conference in 1990 that effectively ended our championship winning dreams but this weekend will be 50 years since what was at that point in my Barnet supporting career the biggest game I had experienced.

We had won through to the FA Trophy Semi Final against Macclesfield which was played at Victoria Ground Stoke. The team that afternoon still gives me shivers as it was so exciting for a 10 year old to watch these fellows and get so close to many of them personally over the years.

Jack McClelland, Jimmy Lye, Peter Jenkins, Gordon Ferry, Ben Embery, Gerry Ward, Barry King, Paddy Powell, Ricky George, Billy Meadows, Les Eason. Sub Tony Gregory.

We had thrashed Mosseley 8-1 in the previous round with all four forwards on the score sheet, Les with a hatrick, Paddy with 2, Ricky with 2 and Billy with the other goal. The previous week we had beaten rivals Hillingdon Borough 6-0 with Les and Billy getting a hatrick each in that game while a couple of weeks earlier we stuffed 10 past Burton Albion with Les and Billy getting 4 each. It was easy.

Why did we lose the Semi 0-1 in front of 8,000? In my opinion because the man below who scored 46 goals in all that season had picked up a painful thigh injury over the Easter Weekend at home to Dover and because of the small playing staff played again on the Monday against Brentwood as manager Dexter Adams chose to rest Captain Gerry Ward and Peter Jenkins, two key players Dexter felt would be vital in the game against Macc. In fact Les Eason had played 6 first team matches in just 11 days! He recalls saying to Dexter "give me a few days at home and I'll be OK!" He sat in a hot bath for three days from advice given by other players and now knows that any doctor would have said the complete opposite. When it came to the match Les broke down within a few minutes and even though we had a good utility sub in Tony Gregory, Meadows had no partner and Bill always said "I was a different player with Eason alongside me, without him I just couldn't get going and their players were saying look at Eason he's done for. Gerry was only half fit too and normally he ran the show". The gap between styles was massive too, the pitch was really heavy and Macc defended very deep until they went ahead then closed ranks.

So many players from that era insist if we had had just 3 or 4 more players to call upon we would have won much more - there was always no money available from the board. At the end of the season Billy Meadows asked for a £5 a week pay rise to £25 (he had scored nearly 80 goals in 2 seasons by the way) and was refused so he went off to Hereford for £30.00 plus travelling expenses, Only 15 players were used regularly that year including Johnny Barr the reserve keeper. Ben Embery and Barry King played 73 games each.

I think it had got so bad financially at the club that was the reason Dexter Adams announced he was retiring at the end of the season, he could take us no further after nearly a decade as manager.

I ramble on as always also I am on SI working at home with this terrible epidemic that is affecting the whole world in some way or another...... but really it was just an excuse to show this photo of the great Sir Les Eason in action in about 1970, with a tantalizing glimpse of the old main stand and the area of the ground with the atmosphere of the Moon, the North West Frontier!

Stay safe.

Reckless.