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BARNET
FC SUPPORTERS' ASSOCIATION Affiliated to National Federation of Supporters' Associations Below is copy of the mailing sent out to members. SEASON 2001/2002-REVIEW OF THE YEAR Committee Matters. We announced with great sadness the death of Frank Judge at the age of 88. He was a committee member for over 20 years and a keen supporter of the Club. Until recently he continued to sell programmes at Underhill and many of you will have known him. During the Second World War he was a prisoner of war of the Japanese. In his younger days he played football for Hendon FC and also for Barnet Reserves. He was greatly liked and respected by us all. Richard Horrigan has stepped down as Secretary and our thanks go to him. He will stay on the committee. We also report the resignation from the committee of Jamie Parker, Ken Springett, Fred Stiff, Tony Thornton and Lynn Thornton. We thank them for their past service to the Association. During the year we co-opted Phil and John Snow and they run the website. Robert Whipple also joined the committee and he is the youngest member of the committee by several decades! On the Pitch. The season started with a trip down memory lane to meet some old and new friends in the Conference after 10 years in the Football League. Our first game away to Hereford was screened by Sky but after a spirited performance we lost 2-1.Fears of a further slump in our fortunes following relegation were unfounded and by the end of October we were 5th. In the FA Cup we were drawn away to Havant & Waterlooville and overcame a dreadful pitch to achieve a draw. Following the win in the replay we were drawn against Carlisle, our old adversaries. Sadly after the home draw we lost the replay at Brunton Park. In the LDV competition we overcame Bournemouth, Northampton and Reading before losing to Cambridge in the Southern semi-final. In the FA Trophy after a great win at Fisher, with its fond memories, we lost in the replay to Scarborough. Meanwhile our league performance slipped and by the time we lost at home to Farnborough at the end of January we had slipped to 10th place and hopes of a quick return to the Football League had ended. Peter Shreeves and Martin Allen joined in time for the Hayes game on 2 March and since then we have seen our revitalised performance take us up to 5th place. With the good young players we have seen and the commitment of the Chairman to keep the Club full-time we can be more hopeful of pushing for promotion next season. We congratulate the new management on their success including Manager of the Month in March. Following the vote among supporters the winners were
The Ground. Off the pitch the year has also been eventful. As you will be aware despite strong local opposition the Council and the Mayor of London approved the plans for the new South Underhill stadium. As we write this, however, the Government office for London has still not given a final decision and there is still a risk that it may be called in for a Public Inquiry. This would be a serious blow to the club. We have campaigned to support the Club's application through contact with councillors, our local MP and GLA member as well as Ken Livingstone. Our final representation was to the Government Office for London and there will be an update at the AGM. The Accounts. The Statement of Account for the year ended 31 May 2002 is enclosed with this report. It was another relatively stable year, the main expense being for the purchase of Goalkeepers equipment. We continue to maintain healthy funds for contingency purposes and to perhaps contribute to supporters' facilities at the new ground. Our Treasurer David Bown will be available at the AGM for any questions. Alternatively you can e-mail at david.bown@siemens.co.uk Quiz Team. It was our ninth consecutive season competing in the Home Counties Football Quiz League. We were Third Division champions in our first year, Second Division champions the year after and League Champions for the last three seasons. Unfortunately we lost our crown this year to a very good Wimbledon side finishing third. We managed though to reach the League Cup Final for the fourth time (winners once) and played Wimbledon, sadly losing 51-62. David Bown triumphed again in the individual competition and partnered Peter Croft to their eighth consecutive triumph in the Doubles. We entered two teams in the NFFSC (National Federation of Football Supporters Clubs) quiz. Our 'A' Team beat Sheffield Wednesday (London) before losing to oft champions Blackpool whilst the 'B' Team were knocked out by Worcester, having triumphed over Slough Town in the first round. By chance we also received an invite at very late notice to compete in the ill-fated ITV Digital's football quiz Do I Not Know That. 108 clubs entered, all 92 league clubs, 15 Scottish and Barnet! The first round was split into twelve groups of nine. We won our group ahead of Blackburn Rovers, Bradford City, Celtic, Wolves, Brentford, Mansfield, Darlington and QPR scoring a record number of points in the process. 36 teams qualified for the second round this time split into four groups of nine. We finished runners up in our group to Wimbledon ahead of Huddersfield, Chelsea, Bradford City, Chesterfield, Ipswich, Dundee and Dundee United. This put is in the last group of nine for the semi finals and final, which were all filmed on the same day. We unfortunately lost at the semi stage in a record scoring match to Aston Villa who went on to finish as runners up to eventual champions Wimbledon. We did though have the consolation of scoring more points than Liverpool and Manchester United. A final position of seventh out of 108 was achieved. Not bad for a non-league club! Thanks are due to all those who contributed to the team during the season, viz. Fred Stiff, John Erroll, Richard Horrigan, Steve Percy, Alex Jones, David Bown, Paul Reisman and Peter Croft. Particular thanks are also due to question masters Alex Jones (when he wasn't playing) and Henry Strevens. Special words of thanks also to Ann Percy for providing a steady supply of pens, paper and pizza. Do you think you know a lot about football? Are you interested in taking part? If so, please email David Bown at david.bown@siemens.co.uk Here is a sample of the type of questions you could be asked,-
Website. Since September 2001 we have had a website. This can be found at www.bfcsa.co.uk. Phil and John Snow have gone through a steep learning curve developing it. It started with the main objective of advertising the coach trips to away games, along with the occasional announcement. We do not compete with the Club's official website, www.barnetfc.com, so we decided to try and include things that were not covered on that site and would be of interest to people. Remember the Club earns money when you visit its site so don't forget to do this on a regular basis. We now have sections that include the following.
If you have access to the Internet, but have not yet visited the site, then do so soon! Websites often mention 'hits' when boasting of their site's popularity. However, without boring you with technicalities, this is not a very useful figure. Much more useful is the number of 'Unique Visitors' - which is fairly self-explanatory. Since September, nearly 2000 different people (or computers) have visited the site. Nearly a quarter of these have visited more than once. Below is a graph showing the number of visitors over time.
Although viewing figures have dropped during April this is only to be expected now the season is over. More significantly, the number of people visiting twice or more every month is steadily increasing. There are many things we would like to have on the website, but time does not permit. We hope to get the history finished, together with the record of games since 1965. Improving the stats provided is something we intend to concentrate on over the summer. Hopefully, by the time the new season kicks off in August, the site should be able to tell you everything you want to know about the team - and a whole lot more besides! If you want more information about the website, please contact us at bfcsa1926@hotmail.com. Please also contact John or Phil if there is anything you can help with, or have any suggestions. Any contributions are most welcome; we will publish (almost) anything submitted. Transport. Coaches were run to every first team away game, a total of 27. Overall travelling numbers were down as result of us being in the Conference as well as the fact that the Official Barnet FC Supporters' Association also ran to some games. Membership. Total membership is 367 a drop from last year of 77. Again this has been affected by the same factors as Transport. Membership prices will be unchanged for next season. Federation Matters. Your Association is an active and influential member of the National Federation of Supporters' Associations. In July it will host its 75th Anniversary Conference in Scarborough. There are 105 members ranging from the Premiership to the non-league pyramid. Federation is seeking unification with the Football Supporters' Association (known to some of you for publishing "When Saturday Comes"). Both organisations expect to approve the merger at their conferences this summer. BFCSA is affiliated to the Federation's Southern Division and Mark Ashfield is its chairman and representative on Federation's National Council, which meets five times a year. This year there have been meetings at Aldershot, Reading (with a tour of the Madjeski stadium), Crawley Town and Gillingham. What does
Federation do? Federation acts as a channel of
communication between supporters groups and the football
authorities. Our national representatives meet bodies
such as the Football Association, Football League,
Nationwide Conference and the Association of Chief Police
Officers. We are represented on government football
initiatives such as the Taylor and Bassam reports.
What can Federation do in the future? Although Federation cannot get changes on every matter raised, it is a means of ensuring that the voice of the supporters can be heard. With continued dialogue with the authorities and unification of supporters' groups, we hope to increase our influence in the future. |
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