Fresh, Fit And Raring To Go. Tarpey’s Back With Only One Goal

Having just fired Maidenhead United to the National League South title with a 45-goal season, he didn’t fancy stopping there.

August saw him score seven times in Non-League’s top flight. "Appears so" was the simple and straightforward answer to the question we all asked about him measuring up to the demands of the top division.

He even scored four in one game at AFC Fylde. A Tuesday night away game where he prepared for the 250-mile slog to the very north west by going to work in the morning before getting on the coach at 11am.

Unsurprisingly, with his determination to make it, an EFL move eventually came. But it almost didn’t!

He couldn’t agree terms with Coventry, but when Barnet picked up the phone in the last few hours of the transfer window the dream, from somewhere, was back on.

A fee was agreed but there was a race against time to get the deal done. And dodgy internet at Maidenhead put things in doubt as papers needed to be emailed. Connection just couldn’t be made and that a spanner in the works.

Magpies chairman Peter Griffin got there in the end - but there was a nasty sting in the tail.

Five minutes into his home debut, Tarpey severely damaged his anterior cruciate ligament.

Nobody quite knows if Barnet would be where they are now if their new signing hadn’t been ruled out for the entire season. The general consensus is probably not.

But on Saturday, Tarpey was back. His first game for ten months, 30 minutes against Ipswich, is giving everyone a lift at the Hive.

“It’s a big relief. I have had to work hard and have had a few set-backs along the way but it’s great to be back out there playing,” he told iBarnet.

“I can’t thank the medical staff enough, they have been brilliant with me.

“It was hard to take with the setbacks but I had the right people behind me. My mentality was right but hopefully we have cracked it and I’m going to stay fit now.

“It’s a fresh start. It feels like I’m a new signing! I want to show the fans what I can do and hopefully get the club back into the Football League.”

His EFL dream - what he called his number one ambition with his 30s fast approaching - may have lasted a matter of minutes last September but he knows he will have to earn the right once again.

“It’s a tough league - the teams who go down don’t always come straight back up. But we will have a go at it, we have a good squad down here,” he said.

“The manager is brilliant. He’s a good man manager. He has good staff and they have been brilliant with me.

“The club have been right behind me the whole way and it’s about paying them back for that now.

“If I can get to 20 goals then I will be happy.”