Barnet's Underhill
By theimps.tk
December 24 2008
A ground that often sees many goals between the Imps and the Bees, Barnet's Underhill isn't exactly a beauty. They are trying their best to redevelop it and have started with a brand new stand behind one of the goals, but the ground still have an overwhelming aura of non-League about it.
DATES VISITED GROUND | ||
DATE | OPPONENT | SCORE |
14/2/06 | Lincoln | BT 2 LC 3 |
14/10/06 | Lincoln | BT 0 LC 5 |
22/3/08 | Lincoln | BT 5 LC 2 |
14/3/09 | Lincoln | BT 3 LC 2 |
16/1/10 | Lincoln | BT 1 LC 2 |
26/2/11 | Lincoln | BT 4 LC 2 |
I must admit that I never thought I'd visit Barnet. Mainly due to them being relegated to the non-League in 2001, but the usual Playoff Final defeat in 2005, this time to Southend, accompanied by Barnet's promotion from the conference meant a trip to Underhill was inevitable. The first time I went, I didn't know what to expect out of the ground, I'd seen a few pictures but none of them revealed anything in particular.
Barnet is reasonably easy to get to. It's right off of a motorway and a major dual carriage way, as well as the final stop on the Northern Line on the Underground. There are quite a lot of things to do near the ground as it's not too far from the town centre and the underground station is less than a two minute walk from the ground, although it does take a long time to get into the central London area, so please take journey times into account if you are going to go into the city.
Also, another point to make clear about the underground station is that on the way back, if you're heading to Kings Cross then the tube from High Barnet doesn't go past there, you have to get off at either Camden or Euston and switch over to the Northern Line Service that is heading to Morden rather than Kennington.
For our visits, we'd been given one of the usual home ends, a pitch length terrace. This stand features a nice lovely slope which just gets worse as you go down. I'm generally a tall guy but stood in the middle of the stand, I was at the shoulder height of someone who is smaller than me but at the other end of the stand, that's how bad the slope is. The view out of this stand however is reasonable, with only the odd post in your way.
I have grown very tiresome of this stand though as, despite it being only partially restricted by the actual ground, the steps are very shallow and you can't see much when surrounded by a crowd of fans and you often have to stretch to be able to see the action properly.
One thing I didn't like about this stand however was the fact that in my second visit, we were sharing the stand with several local chavs who seemed intent on not watching the game and one of them spent the whole game complaining to the stewards and I can't recall him once looking at the pitch. This made for a hostile atmosphere and unfortunately, they started throwing coins after we'd taken a 3-0 lead, not exactly a safe place to take your kids.
The stand to the Imps' fans right was a small terrace of just a few steps. There was no roof to this stand and the only thing that came with the stand, was a net that prevented the balls going into the nearby gardens, where several cheapskates were watching out of as they were too cheap to pay to watch the game. The stand behind the far goal was that thing that every football fan hates, temporary seating, again this had no roofing but also no netting either.
The final stand was another odd prospect and divided into 3 segments, the first of which was a small seated area towards the left hand side of the pitch, next to this was an elevated seated area and then finally another bit of terrace, not a pretty picture to say the least.
Stewards at Barnet are generally mixed. I've had some good conversations with the stewards that are in the seated section, but the ones in the terracing are miserable as any other around the division.
It is quite easy to create an atmosphere at the ground but other than the local chavs, there is no sound coming from the Barnet fans and those chavs quickly went quiet after City started winning. Even during the times when Barnet have been winning the games they have struggled to create an atmosphere, and in terms of decible levels, their fans are barely audible when scoring.
Please be aware though that if you decide to go into the town centre before hand from the game, it's a fifteen minute walk uphill. In terms of places to part, all the streets directly around the ground are permit holders only, so the best place to park is at the underground station (High Barnet) as on Saturday's it's only £1 for the whole day and it's the closest option to the ground given the parking restrictions around the stadium.
The one thing I do have to say in Barnet's favour is that their fans are extremely friendly and you can have a laugh in the "Red Lion" pub, less than one hundred metres from the entrance to the away end. Other than the odd idiot, I've not met a Barnet fan who generally seems like they would like to cause you harm. They are amongst the friendliest in the League.
Overall, it's not a bad ground to visit, could be a lot worse but it's definitely not Football League standard and I'll be honest, I wouldn't exactly be heart broken if I didn't have a chance to come here again. Would I ever come here for a random game? No.
SCORES | |||
| Ease of getting to the area | 6 | Friendliness of fans (outside ground) | 9 |
| Ease of getting to the ground once in area | 5 | Friendliness of fans (inside grounds) | 3 |
| Transport in local area | 5 | Feeling of safety | 2 |
| Ease of parking | 6 | Atmosphere (noise) | 2 |
| Stuff to do near the ground | 5 | Atmosphere (chant variety) | 2 |
| Club Shop | 3 | Facilities in away end | 1 |
| Away End Quality | 3 | Quality of food | 2 |
| View from Away End | 3 | Stewards | 2 |
| Rest of the Ground | 4 | Quality of games on visits | 7 |
| Programme | 6 | Chances of a non-Lincoln visit | 1 |
| Total (out of 200) | 77 | ||
Several disappointing visits later, and I havn't been since we were 3-0 up but eventually lost 3-4. This included Tony Battersby missing a late penalty .......... and not really in a rush to go back again tbh!
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