National Game Awards: Dean Brennan’s award is a win for the collective

Since making the switch from Wealdstone in 2021, the Irishman has helped the Bees blossom from relegation fodder to National League champions.

This year, the Bees ended their seven-year exile from the English Football League in style after racking up 102 points.

But Brennan insists his Barnet’s successes on-and-off the pitch owe as much to the collective work of everyone in and around the club and not just those in the dugout.

Sports Ground Development Manager of the Year – Dean Brennan

“We’re all together in this,” Brennan told The NLP.

“I always tell everybody, you have to get together to create success in this business and we’ve done it.

“We haven’t got promoted with finances or loads of money or anything like that.

“We’ve just done it with good old-fashioned hard work and honest people.

“These kind of awards, that’s a testament to everybody.

“It’s not just my award, it’s everybody’s award.

“All the coaching staff, all the players – everyone’s as important as each other.

“How big a part you play, how little a part you play, it doesn’t matter – it all has the same importance in my opinion.

“So I’m immensely proud to win manager of the year for all those people and it’s a real shame I can’t be there in person.”

UP AND AT ‘EM: Dean Brennan won the title at Barnet

Brennan, 44, began his managerial career as a 29-year-old caretaker at Hemel Hempstead Town in 2010 before taking the reins permanently two years later.

He spent six years at Vauxhall Road, winning promotion to National League South in 2015, before brief spells at Billericay and Kingstonian.

A move to Wealdstone in 2019 then yielded promotion to the National League in his first season, prompting Barnet to come calling a year later.

“This business is a survival business, and I’ve managed to survive,” said Brennan, who initially joined the Bees as Head of Football.

“I was lucky to be given a chance by Dave Boggins and his wife Emily at Hemel Hempstead.

“Without that, I probably wouldn’t be in this position.

“Since then, I’ve won Step 3 as a manager, I’ve won Step 2 as a manager and now I’ve just won Step 1.

“I’m very proud of that achievement, but I’m not going to stand still.

“I can’t wait for the sports weekend in August.

“I don’t think anyone at Barnet can.

“Before I got here, the football club had a lot of dark days so let’s enjoy the exciting times.”

Unbelievable

Accepting the Sports Ground Development Manager of the Year award on Brennan’s behalf was faithful assistant manager Connor Smith – and he declared that the season could not have gone better for the north Londoners after play-off heartbreak in previous campaigns.

Smith said: “It has been amazing; we got over heartbreak the last two years in the play-offs, and last year was really disappointing, we were head and shoulders the second best team in the league, but didn’t do ourselves justice in the playoffs.

“It’s well documented that myself and the gaffer stayed around for two, three days after the play-offs and got to work building the team.

“We said it wouldn’t happen again and to rack up over 100 points is an unbelievable achievement and testament to the fans, players and staff.

“It has been an amazing season for all of us.

“We set out to win the league and not awards, but to do it off the back of a successful season makes it even better.

“It’s amazing to be here and I’m so pleased for the whole club.

“Everyone deserves it.”

READ MORE: National Game Awards: These Barnet boys will go down in club folklore