The Times - UK (2020-07-27)

14 2GG Monday July 27 2020 | the times

thegame Sky Bet Championship play-offs

Gregor Robertson

on plight of Barnet

Few tears are likely to have been shed

for Barnet after Saturday’s National

League play-off semi-final defeat by

Notts County, who will now meet

Harrogate Town at Wembley on

Sunday for a place in the Football

League. Barnet were the chief

beneficiary of the points-per-game

system that enabled them to leap

from eleventh to seventh, replacing

Stockport County, over whom

Barnet, thanks to their shoddy pitch,

had four games in hand. Woking,

Hartlepool United and Solihull

Moors, over whom Barnet also

climbed, felt aggrieved.

Yet, that Barnet had lost only one

of 13 games before Covid-19 arrived

was often glossed over. And on

Saturday, to watch Darren Currie,

the head coach, give an emotional

post-match interview after the 2-0

defeat at Meadow Lane, highlighted

just how much he and his players

and staff have invested this season in

unenviable circumstances.

In March, Barnet were the first

lower-league club to announce

widespread job losses. It took Tony

Kleanthous, the owner, only a few

hours to serve notice on non-playing

staff. Days later the government’s

furlough scheme was announced.

Football staff were furloughed and

Currie and his assistant, Junior

Lewis, had six-month notice periods

served. As things stand, both will be

unemployed in mid-September. For

most of the Barnet players, however,

that reality is already here.

Three of the starting XI against

Notts County were released in May

then later asked to return for the

play-offs; another came on off the

bench. Another four players had left.

Of the starting XI on Saturday, only

four players are under contract

for next season and they now

have only nine players.

Such is life for many

lower-league clubs in these

financially straitened times

but Barnet are not like

most clubs at their level. In

four years writing this

column, there have been

few clubs to which I have

returned with such

regularity. Life at The

Hive is rarely dull.

Currie is Barnet’s 15th

permanent manager

since 2010 and any fan will tell you

he has brought more hope to the

club in the past year than the rest of

those transients put together.

Barnet, on one hand, are an

example of what a modern lower-

league club should be: The Hive,

with its 44 acres of pitches, gym,

state of the art medical imaging

centre, café, restaurant and

conference suites, yields much

non-match-day income. Yet

that development has not been

mirrored on the pitch, the

club yo-yoing between

tiers four and five. At the

same time, The Hive’s

various enterprises have

helped to make

Kleanthous — who began

selling cars, then

petrochemicals and telecoms —

very wealthy. In May, the owner

of 26 years entered The Sunday

Times Rich List with an

estimated £131 million fortune. In late

June, on the day Barnet’s players

returned to training and full pay, a

£50 million development proposal for

The Hive, which includes plans for a

sports science campus and hotel, was

announced.

It is hard to shake the feeling that

Barnet’s status there is gradually

diminishing. After the move in 2013

from Barnet’s atmospheric old ground

at Underhill, attendances halved.

Given what Currie has achieved

with a group of players thrown

together by four previous managers

in a year, it is little surprise he is now

among the frontrunners to replace

Sol Campbell as manager of

Southend United.

Yet, as that emotional video

showed, Currie feels an attachment

to the club, for whom he played with

distinction two decades ago. “We’ve

got to embrace what’s happened this

season,” he said. “It’s put a few smiles

back on a few faces. This is what I

want this club to be. I don’t like the

doom and gloom.”

Tears and job

losses follow

Barnet defeat

THE

JOURNEYMAN

Notts County ended Barnet’s

hopes of promotion on Saturday

For Swansea, Brewster twice came

close to adding to his ten goals since

arriving at the Liberty Stadium in

January. First, Conor Gallagher

worked the ball adroitly to Brewster,

whose shot was struck fiercely but

straight at Raya. Then, from a

Gallagher corner, Ayew headed

against a post and when the ball

rebounded to Brewster inside the six-

yard box, Raya once again denied

him. It was the outstanding Ayew,

though, who made the breakthrough,

starting and finishing a brilliant move

before lashing a left-footed volley into

the top corner.

“We have a small advantage, but it’s

only an advantage if you use it — it’s

still all to play for,” Cooper said.

“There are no heads dropped,” a

defiant Frank said. “You can see the

fire in the eyes of the players.”

breathless season finale but neither

side showed any after-effects of a

final day of contrasting extremes.

Brentford conceded in stoppage

time to lose 2-1 against Barnsley,

when a win would have earned

automatic promotion ahead of West

Bromwich Albion; Swansea scored

three times in the final 24 minutes of

their 4-1 win against Reading to steal

the final play-off place from

Nottingham Forest.

Brentford sprang into action

quicker. Said Benrahma and Ollie

Watkins both headed wide early on

and Watkins flicked another clever

header goalwards that Erwin Mulder,

the Swansea goalkeeper, tipped round

a post. Benrahma, the coveted

Algerian winger, then weaved his way

towards goal with a dizzying run

before blazing over from 15 yards.

SEMI-FINAL, FIRST LEG
GREGOR ROBERTSON

A moment of late brilliance from
Andre Ayew gave Swansea City a
narrow advantage over Brentford in
an eventful first leg of this Sky Bet
Championship play-off semi-final last
night — a game that hinged on a
controversial two-minute spell
midway through the second half,
during which Swansea missed a
penalty and Brentford were reduced
to ten men.
Ayew had missed from the spot
before Rico Henry and Connor
Roberts chased a loose ball towards
the touchline and the moment that
altered the dynamic of the game took
place. Henry’s sliding challenge was
full-blooded, and his foot was perhaps
a little high, but the Brentford left
back made clear contact with the ball.
The referee, Keith Stroud, however,
felt the challenge was reckless and
brandished a red card that the
managers saw very differently.
“My personal opinion is you can’t
do that nowadays,” Steve Cooper, the
Swansea manager, said. “You can’t be
as excessive and as dangerous as that,
whether there’s a touch on the ball or
not, and expect to stay on the pitch.”
Thomas Frank, however, said that
Brentford would not only be
appealing the decision ahead of the

return leg on Wednesday but

expected it to be overturned. The

Brentford coach also questioned why,

in a game of this magnitude, a video

assistant referee was not in use. “I

understand we do not have it in the

Championship, but these games are

so decisive, we are playing for

promotion to Premier League, we are

playing for £170 million,” he said.

Minutes earlier Ayew had fed the

ball to Rhian Brewster, the talented

striker on loan from Liverpool, inside

the penalty area and the 20-year-old

drew a clumsy challenge from Pontus

Jansson, who left Stroud no choice

but to point to the spot. Ayew stepped

up to take the kick but David Raya,

despite diving to his left, plucked the

ball to safety with his right hand.

Just four days earlier of course both

of these teams had been involved in a

10

Ayew 82

RATINGS

Swansea City (3-4-1-2): E Mulder 7 — B Cabango 6,

M Van der Hoorn 6, M Guehi 6 — C Roberts 6,

J Fulton 6, M Grimes 6, J Bidwell 6 — C Gallagher 7

— A Ayew 7, R Brewster 7. Booked J Bidwell,

R Brewster, B Cabango

Brentford (4-3-3): D Raya 7 — H Dalsgaard 6,

P Jansson 5, E Pinnock 6, R Henry 6 — M Jensen 6

(S Baptiste 85min), C Norgaard 6, J Da Silva 6

(M Roerslev 69, 5) — B Mbeumo 6 (E Marcondes

69, 5), O Watkins 7, S Benrahma 7 (J Valencia 85).

Booked Jensen, Dalsgaard, Norgaard. Sent off

Henry

Referee K Stroud.

Swansea

City

Brentford

Advantage Swansea as Ayew

atones for missing penalty

Henry’s red card for his heavy tackle on Roberts reduced Brentford to ten men and swung the momentum in Swansea’s favour

DAVID ROGERS/GETTY IMAGES

Parker: Only

Leeds are better

Scott Parker hopes that his Fulham

side will soon be seen as the equal of

already-promoted West Bromwich

Albion. For that to happen they must

get past Cardiff City in a play-off

semi-final tie that begins in Wales

tonight, then defeat Brentford or

Swansea City in the final at Wembley.

Brentford were the bookmakers’

favourites for promotion before their

first-leg defeat but Parker is

convinced that only Leeds United, the

winners of the Sky Bet

Championship, have proved

themselves superior to his side.

“West Brom and Brentford have

been spoken about very highly, but we

were level on points with Brentford

and won more games than West

Brom,” he said. “What my team have

done needs to be rewarded as well.”

Fulham finished the season with an

unbeaten seven-game run, including a

2-0 victory at home to Cardiff.

Cardiff City v Fulham Championship play-off

semi-final, first-leg. Tonight, 7.45pm. TV Sky

Sports Main Event. Radio talkSPORT.

Ronaldo leads

Juve to title

Cristiano Ronaldo led from the front

as Juventus beat Sampdoria 2-0 last

night to extend their record run of

Italian league titles to nine.

At the final whistle, Juventus

players danced in celebration and

embraced each other before the

empty stands inside the Allianz

Stadium. It was the club’s 36th

championship overall and the first for

the coach, Maurizio Sarri.

Ronaldo opened the scoring with

his 31st goal in 32 matches. Miralem

Pjanic rolled a free kick to the

Portugal forward to fire into the far

top corner in first-half stoppage time.

Federico Bernardeschi then sealed

the win by scoring his first Serie A

goal in nearly two years by knocking

in a rebound of Ronaldo’s shot

midway through the second half.

Ronaldo missed a late penalty kick.

The win took Juventus seven points

clear of Inter Milan with only two

games left.

SERIE A

JON WEST