Brennan Determined To Right Wrongs Of Play-Off Collapse

The Bees, who comfortably finished second in the National League last season, fell to pieces in front of their fans and the TNT Sports cameras in the semi final.

Solihull Moors ran out easy 4-0 winners - and Brennan cast a deflated and disgusted figure on the sidelines as he watched their Wembley dreams shattered in front of him.

He certainly didn’t hide his annoyance and within a few weeks embarked on a near-total overhaul.

Barnet are well into double figures for new signings and the Irishman has spoken for the first time about how he channelled the heartache of what happened at the end of April.

“It was a positive season overall but we came up short in the big games,” said the former Wealdstone and Hemel Hempstead manager.

“Constant errors cost us in big moments, killed us really. When it came to the play-off game, that was the worst we have defended.

“What I did after was to take 48 hours to dissect it - then we started getting down to work on the Monday morning. We then got our business done early and we’re absolutely delighted with it.

“We’ve managed to get most of our main targets and I’m buzzing with the senior players we’ve signed.”

Despite the play-off trauma, he says the club are in a very different place to where they were when he walked through the door in June 2021.

In an interview with the club’s YouTube channel, he explained: “Bit by bit we’ve managed to recruit better and better, and now players want to join us. That’s credit to all of us here and this club - people want to come and play for Barnet again.

“People talk about this club in a positive way again, and maybe they weren’t four or five years ago.”

On the challenge ahead, he said: “This is a difficult league. Only Grimsby have come down from the EFL and gone straight back up in a long time. We know how tough it is to get out of the National League.”