MAD DOG’S MISSION IS NOT OVER
Only Barnet, who have now been buried as a Football league club on three occasions in the last 17 years, could publish an advertisement for club-branded coffins in the match programme on their latest judgment day. ‘ Discount available for season- ticket holders,’ proclaimed the offer.
to the very end, salvation had seemed possible because of the individual they always turn to when in a predicament at the foot of the fourth tier.
martin ‘mad Dog’ Allen told your correspondent to ‘talk to me again in eight weeks’, when asked in late march if he honestly believed another act of escapology was possible, with the club seven points adrift and only eight games left to play. it was his way of saying: ‘yes.’
He was so very nearly as good as his word. His side did what they had to do on Saturday, with their win making it 16 points out of 24 for Allen and more wins under him than they’d hitherto managed through the entire season. But they were relegated anyway — on goal difference — as morecambe secured the point they needed, in a goalless draw at Coventry City.
you only had to see the look in Allen’s eyes as he headed into the tunnel after a post-match lap of the pitch to see how much this cut him, though he had put his familiar motivator’s face on when he emerged to talk to the media.
even a discussion of football’s most wretched form of relegation ends in laughter when Allen is leading the conversation.
His powers of motivation extend well beyond a brave face, though. take 6ft 2in forward John Akinde — the first half’s stand- out player and spear of Barnet’s uncomplicated attacking system, whose bullet header broke the deadlock and the tension just before half-time. Allen believes the 28-year- old would be playing at a higher level had he a better work ethic.
An exchange between the pair of them after he had put Barnet ahead — Allen demanding more from him, Akinde bridling at the suggestion — demonstrated what this uncompromising manager brings. Akinde’s season brought only seven goals. Had someone got a grip of him sooner, Barnet might not have been in that last-chance saloon.
there was slackness everywhere when Allen arrived back at the club, after his lucrative move to non-league eastleigh had turned sour. they had accumulated 43 players. He halved the number and appointed Dan Sweeney, the outstanding player of the past two months, as captain.
two goals in the last nine minutes, from full back Richard Brindley and Alex nicholls, wrapped things up though celebrations were muted.
the record 5,539 crowd had telegraphed no news of a breakthrough from Coventry.
For Chesterfield, relegated a week ago, the despair is compounded by the fact that Allen was ready to take over at their helm last September but the club instead hired unproven Jack lester, with disastrous consequences. it is thought that several calls from Allen went unreturned by Chesterfield at that time.
they plunge into the nonleague with a £2 million player wage bill — one of the five highest in league two — including a £3,000-a-week commitment to forward Chris O’Grady.
Barnet have no such issues. With one of london’s most sophisticated medical scanning facilities and a 500- capacity banqueting facility, the club can generate cash regardless of division.
Hiring and keeping good managers has been a problem, so chairman tony Kleanthous needs to persuade Allen, who won them promotion to league two in 2014, to extend his fifth spell. ‘ there’s a lot to look forward to. next season could be really exciting,’ said Allen, sounding as if he is ready to commit to a club for whom relegation feels more like a temporary setback than an interment.