Barnet v Crewe Alexandra

17th August 1991

On the face of it, Barnet versus Crewe Alexandra may not seem to fit the "Big Match" category, but in North London, and for the majority of the 5090 fans packed into The Bee's Underhill Stadium, sloping pitch and all, it was a massive match that their Club had waited 103 years for, it was Barnet's first ever game in the Football League.

Under the guidance of one Barry Fry (wonder what happened to him!), Barnet had clinched the GM Vauxhall Conference on the last day of the previous season, beating Fisher Athletic 4-2 to keep ahead of Colchester United and enter the League. As a result of one of its regular structure changes, no one was relegated and the number of Clubs increased to 93, though Aldershot were soon to fold to bring the number back down again!

The League's fixture computer gave the Capital's new boys a home opener against Dario Gradi's Crewe Alex, relegated from the old Division Three to the basement at the end of the previous season. Crewe had a reputation of playing good football, Barnet were direct and scored goals galore, 103 of them were registered in 42 Conference games, 30 from Gary Bull, during their Championship season. Goals were not in short supply in this historic match!

The crowd soon got their first taste of League football and its excitement, by half time Crewe led 3-2, with Crewe's third being grabbed by one Rob Edwards, an attacking midfield player who was supporting Ron Futcher and Tony Naylor up front and was alongside Craig Hignett (future Middlesbrough Cup Semi Final penalty scorer) in the middle and he played in front of Rob Jones, soon of Liverpool, who was at left back.

The goals didn't stop after the break, the fans witnessed six more, four of them went to the visitors, Hignett bagging two, one from the spot, and Rob grabbed two more too to complete his first senior hat-trick, the previous season he'd scored two in matches against Leyton Orient (3-3), at Birmingham City in a 2-0 win for Crewe and in a 3-0 home win against the first team he scored for Chesterfield for, Mansfield Town. Rob didn't play in either of Crewe's League Cup clashes with Liverpool in that 90-91 season, The Merseysiders won 9-2 on aggregate.

So a 7-4 away win gave the Bees' fans plenty of excitement, but no points, in their first ever Underhill view of the World's oldest League, which had kicked off in 1888, the same year Barnet were formed. The scorers were, for Barnet, two each for Bull and Mark Carter, Rob grabbed his hat trick for Crewe, Hignett got two adding to the opening two goals scored by Naylor and Futcher.

As for Barnet, they continued to give their home fans plenty of excitement, their next match, in the Rumbelows League Cup, brought only a mere ten goals in a London derby with Brentford, it ended 5-5! After that, they changed their defence about and introduced one Roger "Harry" Willis into the rearguard and drew 1-1 with Cardiff City.

Alex also continued to rattle in the goals, beating Doncaster Rovers 5-2 in the Cup, Rob grabbed their first goal, they beat Rovers 9-4 on aggregate to face Newcastle United. At Gresty Road in Leg One, Rob played in a really big, humdinger of a match, Crewe led 3-2 at half time but lost 4-3, ex Spireite Darren Bradshaw played for The Magpies, whose Gavin Peacock bagged a trio, United won leg two 1-0, though less than 10,000 were at St James' Park.

Later that season, during which Crewe got to the play off semi's (lost to Scunthorpe) Liverpool visited Crewe in the FA Cup 3rd Round, Rob played in a 4-0 win for the visitors, former team-mate Rob Jones played for The Reds whose goals came from Steve McManaman and a John Barnes hat-trick. Bruce Grobelaar, Jan Molby, Mark Wright, Steve Nicol and Dean Saunders all featured for The Reds.

Rob played for Crewe Alexandra until March 1996 when, for £150,000, he moved to this afternoon's opponents, Huddersfield Town,  159 senior appearances later he joined Chesterfield and enjoyed promotion in his first season.

Teams for the Big Match:

Barnet: Phillips, Blackford, Cooper (Murphy), Horton, Bodley (Stein), Johnson, Showler, Carter, Bull, Lowe, Evans.

Crewe: Greygoose, Wilson, Jones, Smart, Callaghan, Walters (Murphy), Hignett, Naylor, Futcher (Garvey), Gardiner, Edwards.

BY PHIL TOOLEY