THE GAME
When your Head Coach describes the performance as diabolical and your skipper says it was embarrassing, then you know it really was bad and, apart from a few flourishes early in the second half, their assessment was spot on.
Darrell Clarke made three changes to his starting XI for the game, leaving out Stephan Negru, Bryant Bilongo and Ellis Harrison and bringing in Jack Sparkes, Josh McEachran and Kacper Lopata. Harrison’s absence from the squad was down to injury and it is to be hoped it’s not long term.
Luke Thomas fired two efforts over the Barnet crossbar early on, but Clarke’s side conceded the first goal of the evening with only 15 minutes on the clock. Ryan Glover easily got past Taylor Moore before delivering a cross into the box where the unmarked Adam Senior who comfortably beat Luke Southwood with his header.
Thomas again threatened as Rovers looked to get back in the game though he fired over the crossbar once more. Fabrizio Cavegn forced a save from Cieran Slicker, but the home side added a second goal on the half hour mark.
Nnamdi Ofobrh was the goalscorer, striking a powerful left foot shot past Southwood from the edge of the area. There might have been a third home goal before the break as Southwood did well to save from Britt Assombolonga.
Two half time substitutions by Clarke saw Tom Lockyer and Thomas replaced by Freddie Issaka and Shaq Forde respectively and, for a short while, it seemed as though those changes might be productive and a Lopata effort was cleared off the line by Adam Senior.
Forde did well to work an opening for himself, but shot hurriedly over the bar before Rovers gave away a needless penalty with 12 minutes remaining. Mark Shelton was felled by a clumsy Kamil Conteh challenge
and the Barnet man got up to take the resulting spot kick and sent Southwood the wrong way to give his side a three goal advantage.
Callum Stead, a second half substitute for Anthony Hartigan, rubbed salt in the wound with a fourth goal a minute from time with a close range finish. It was the end of a miserable night in North London where Gasheads saw their side lose a tenth consecutive league match.
WHAT WAS SAID
‘It was a diabolical performance. I can only apologise yet again to our supporters, who came in their numbers to watch that. I can only apologise, it was diabolical. I’ve got nothing positive to say. There were no leaders out there, no nothing. It was diabolical. It’s a big job, it’s a massive job, it always has been. It’s getting worse, it’s getting harder, but my obituary has been written a few times at this football club. I’ll keep fighting on. I certainly don’t want to leave it in the state that it’s in at the minute. So, I’ll keep fighting on. The fans know what I am. I’m hurting, and I need to gather my thoughts.
‘Nine straight league defeats is a disgrace on my CV, and the people I feel most for are our supporters. They know what I think about this club and how much I care about this club, and I’m not producing for them at the minute. The run is a shocking run. I don’t think we deserve nine defeats. If I am honest with you, I think there are a few performances in there that have been good, but nowhere near the standard and level we need at this football club, that is for sure. I’m not going to say too much after the game other than an apology.
‘I am not a quitter. Everybody knows me. Listen, I took this club into non-league, and I have no intentions of doing that again. I am not a quitter, and if I can, I’ll change things around in January, massively and do what needs to be done and in the summer. I have always been honest with the assessment, and to be honest with you, not a lot has changed my mind in eight or nine weeks. I keep giving players opportunities, they are not taking those opportunities, and I think the club is too big for some of them at the minute. I think one or two players we signed in the summer are not producing.’ Rovers Head Coach Darrell Clarke
‘First I just want to apologise to the travelling fans. Obviously that’s nine games now, and they’re still coming in their numbers, they’re still giving us their support. So massively sorry to them, that first half was unacceptable really. I thought we came out in the second half and actually did well, created a few chances, but at the end of the day we lost 4-0 again so I think we need to take accountability as players. The manager, his staff all work tirelessly behind the scenes. To give that performance tonight is unacceptable. But we just need to keep going, stick together, and move forward to Saturday.
‘Obviously it’s never nice to hear what the manager thinks after a performance like that. It’s down to the players to prove him wrong really. We’ve got a massive game now on Saturday, 12:30pm kick off, so we need to let the dust settle and move on to Saturday. Something’s got to change. We need to review what’s going wrong, because there’s a few things going wrong at the moment, and put it right.
Obviously there’s a lot of frustration in the dressing room; no one wants to be in this position. So it is really tough, tough conversations at the moment, but we need to digest it, see what went wrong tonight and put it right.’ Rovers midfielder Josh McEachran
‘I’ve liked our performances in the six games as we played on the front foot, but what we managed to do, crucially, was get a second goal before half time. I thought we should have been four up. Our substitutes made a huge impact and having that strength in depth with key players back makes a big difference.
‘Being two goals up is the most dangerous scoreline in football, so it was important we put the game to bed. We’ve worked a lot on our finishing. The harder you work, the luckier you get. Nik Tavares was amazing; he’s my Rolls Royce at the back.
‘We changed system in the second half to stay on top and attack their backline. Mark Shelton missed his last penalty, but he had the courage to take it again and score. He’s been brilliant for us. Now we have to step up again and improve the goal difference.’ Barnet boss Dean Brennan
