Matt Badcock: Barnet boss Dean Brennan is loving his Hive of title activity

Staying calm is key for Bees chief

By Matt Badcock

IN IT TOGETHER: Barnet‘s form this season is down to work ethic and camaraderie on the training ground, insets left

PICTURES: Kieran Falcon/Barnet FC and

Thursday morning, a little after 10am, and the lights are off in Dean Brennan‘s office.

“Sorry it’s so dark,” the effervescent Barnet boss says, “the light bouncing off the screen is annoying.”

While the players finish up their breakfast before a game of Uno in the changing room, Brennan and his coaching staff are going through clips in preparation for their National League fixture with Solihull Moors.

We’re down to the championship rounds, as Irishman Brennan labels them, in the National League title race but the process is the same.

Big clash

Two days out the game-specific work steps up.

It’s why the Bees will be in this Sunday morning for their big clash with York City on Tuesday night.

But, first, it’s Moors – the side who beat them in last season’s play-off semi-final and in a 4-3 encounter earlier this season.

Player-coach, and captain, Jerome Okimo slips in to watch and listen too.

After picking out what they want to show to the players from Moors’ recent game against Oldham Athletic, they look back at October’s away defeat.

The fact they almost went 5-1 down but managed to get it back to 4-3 by the end is one of the few positives Brennan has.

“This thing could come down to goal difference,” he recalls saying on the day.

BEHIND CLOSED DOORS: Dean Brennan and Connor Smith share a joke in the manager’s office

Opened The Hive doors

On the promise of bringing biscuits, Brennan has opened The Hive doors to The NLP for the day.

Soon we’re into the changing room where the same info and instructions are delivered to the players.

“If you recruit players with good character and personalities then you’ll have a proper team, a winning team.“

Head of logistics Kirk Rayment keeps the clips coming as Brennan rolls through, emphasising the importance they get into the “Hurt Zone” in the final third of the pitch, pausing occasionally to see if the group have any questions, while assistant manager Connor Smith adds his thoughts too.

The players are then into the gym for activation work with strength & conditioning coach Liam O’Meara before getting out onto the training pitch where goalkeeping coach Craig Holloway is already putting the stoppers through their paces and head of physio Jade Doran watches on.

Structured

“It’s amazing, now I don’t even do team-talks before games,” Brennan says.

“When I started out in management and was part-time, we used to do the phases of play in the warm-up so I could get it into the players’ heads.

“We’d be doing attacking phases, shadow play in the warm-up because we didn’t have enough contact time.

“Now the week is structured, we’ve got time, we’ve got recovery, we’ve got video.

“When you look at younger people, especially, now they learn a lot off their phones, from video, social media, YouTube.

“Does anybody watch EastEnders or Coronation Street?

“My Ma definitely still watches Corrie and Emmerdale!

“But, that’s what I’m saying, it’s generational so how it’s changed is fascinating.”

Camaraderie

The video work is now put into practice on the grass – well, 3G pitch on this chilly morning – for a sharp hour before we head back inside after some of the players take part in a crossbar challenge.

The camaraderie in the group is clear, as is how relaxed everyone is, even with this journo loitering in the corner.

“We’re big believers that if you recruit players we will have a good team,” Brennan says.

“But if you recruit good players with good character and personalities, then you’ll have a proper team, a winning team.

“We’ve got an open football club.

“The door to the office is open.

“Most football clubs have gone home now.

“The lads will be in here ‘til three or four, playing darts and spending time together.

“We’ve got a real good bunch.

Together

“They’ve watched each other’s backs all season, we’ve just got to continue to do that for another 15 games.” Smith agrees.

“It’s not us and them as staff and players, it’s all in it together as Gaff said,” Smith says.

“We don’t have the office closed or all the staff stick to themselves and players to themselves.

“It’s all one big group.”

It’s a group that has put itself in the title conversation alongside Forest Green Rovers and York City.

They have got better since last season.

Money accrued in the summer from player sales and Ephron Mason-Clark’s sell-on has been reinvested in the pitch and moving the tunnel so players come out from the middle rather than the corner by the away fans.

Brennan, 44, knows what this part of the season is all about.

He took Hemel Hempstead from the bottom of the Southern League into the Conference South in his first job and, after some big learnings at Billericay Town and Kingstonian, then won Step 2 with Wealdstone.

Driven

Although an FA Trophy winner with Grays Athletic, Brennan says he didn’t live right to maximise his playing career.

It’s why he’s so driven in his management career – one that actually started in Sunday League alongside his Non-League playing days.

“I wanted to get used to speaking in front of a group,” Brennan says.

“Because being a player and saying, ‘Oh can we do this, gaffer?’ is totally different to standing up in a changing room and seeing 16 faces staring back at you.

“Now the squads are even larger.

“You saw me earlier doing video analysis and speaking in front of the players.

“It’s understanding where they’re sitting because it’s important how you get that communication across.

“I don’t want to be turning around saying, ‘Matt, Matt, where are you Matt?’

“You look like a right idiot.

“Rather than knowing where you are and saying, ‘Right, Matt, this is what we want you to do’.

“I know where everyone is sitting.

Con man

“All those things I learnt early and it’s important because it’s hard speaking in front of a group.

“If you’re a con man, they will know you’re a con man.

“Footballers know if you’re spoofing them and bluffing them.

“I just wanted to get that right.

“So I did player-assistant at a couple of clubs.

“Way lower down at Dunstable Town and Aylesbury Vale, then I started doing my badges and Mr Boggins (Hemel chairman) gave me a chance.”

‘If you’re a con man, they will know you are a con man.

“Footballers know if you’re spoofing or bluffing them’

Evolved

The game has changed greatly since then.

Brennan recalls shouting and screaming back in those days.

Now he’s evolved and calmer.

Smith, 32 on Tuesday, who played under Brennan at Barnet and Wealdstone, has seen the game change too from his own playing career.

“Me and Skip (Okimo) we’ve probably got a foot in both camps,” he says.

“When I was in the youth team at Watford we were still cleaning boots, sweeping the stands and doing all the stuff you associate with being a scholar back then.

“But I think we were the last crop to do it.

“It gradually fizzled out and now they get everything handed to them.

“It’s a completely different mindset.

“So I’ve seen both sides a little bit.

Relate

“I can relate to the younger lads because I’ve seen them come through when I was still playing but, at the same time, I was more of the old school.

“At Watford, we had to wear black boots, had to wear shinpads in training, had to clean first team boots, pump the footballs, clean the footballs, shovel snow off the pitch.

“There’s no ranting or raving within the 18s-21s anymore.

“So it’s heavy on detail, which is brilliant because they understand the game loads.

“Lads certainly respond better to it being calmer now, go out relaxed and play that way.”

Players are different, the pair agree.

Zak Brunt employs his own fitness coach away from the club, while Joe Grimwood has more than 100,000 followers watching his fitness advice on TikTok.

Technology plays a big role everywhere.

The staff will even show players clips at half-time as Brennan recalls Micky Griffin – “God rest his soul,” Brennan adds – bringing a copy of Hemel games to his house on a Sunday morning before he would spend six hours going through it.

PERFECT PARTNERS: Barnet boss Dean Brennan, left, and The NLP’s Matt Badcock

Management

There was a time after the fall-out – and exit – at Wealdstone that led Brennan to think he wouldn’t come back to management.

Barnet chairman Tony Kleanthous – whose advances he had turned down when at the Stones – came knocking again to bring him in, initially, as director of football.

But after Harry Kewell’s appointment fell flat, he found himself back in the dug-out and is now looking to become an EFL boss with the Bees.

“Connor and myself were doing a course with the FAI (Irish FA) and the LMA were there saying the lifespan of a manager in the EFL is 18 games average,” Brennan says, while recalling Ricky Hill, the coach who brought him to England as a youngster at Sheffield Wednesday and later Luton and the impact he’s had on him.

“That’s three form guides! It’s crazy.

“You have to be mad to come into this business.

“But it’s a bug, it gets you.

“There was a stage where I thought I’d never go back into it.

“I’d had enough of it because of different experiences.

“Then Mr Kleanthous put his arm around me and said, ‘Come and help my club do well again’.

“That’s what we’ve done.”

Raucous cheers

As we talk, raucous cheers filter through the office wall from a, seemingly, intense game of darts next door between the players.

“It’s exciting,” Brennan, who has turned down EFL offers, says.

“We’ve created this excitement around the football club.

“The players, supporters, staff, everyone has created this.

“Every game is a cup final now.

“I said that with 21 games to go, now we’ve got 15 left.

“My focus is to keep everyone’s feet on the floor.

“You can hear the banter there.

“You’ve seen it this morning, you can see how the camaraderie around the place and how relaxed we are.

“The lads are in there playing darts – and someone has obviously just beaten someone!”

Brennan knows his side will need to do that a fair few times too if they’re to emerge into the EFL light.