The long overdue arrival of summer brought the Bees swarming out in force as Mark Robson’s Barnet handed St Albans City their heaviest defeat in a friendly with a 10-2 drubbing at a sun-kissed Clarence Park on Saturday.
Barnet are very much in a transitional phase following a massive clearout of players during the summer and, on this evidence, former Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United midfielder Robson is constructing a free-flowing side with the accent on passing with the ball on the deck.
Quite what City are up to is a little more difficult to fathom.
Manager David Howell looked to be going for a 4-3-3 formation but for much of the opening 45 minutes St Albans appeared locked into a malfunctioning 4-5-1, which left striker Lewis Toomey stranded in perfect isolation and able to pose few problems for the Bees backline.
In truth, the only numbers that mattered were the ones in St Albans’ goals-against column and these amounted to an alarming six inside the opening 36 minutes.
The Saints kicked off with four faces that are unfamiliar to Park regulars including new signings Toomey and Richard Graham, the latter having confirmed his move from Dartford earlier in the week.
The two trialists in the starting XI were goalkeeper Alex Tokarczyk, previously of Farnborough, and the former Maidenhead United central defender Andrew Fagan.
Although Fagan went onto score the first City goal any hope either of them had of underlining what they can bring to the Saints defence was in tatters within four minutes as Barnet began their clinical destruction with two quick goals.
Barnet opened the scoring on 80 seconds with a cracking low right-footed drive from 22 yards by midfielder Mark Byrne.
Two minutes later Mario Vilhete unleashed a glorious shot from 12 yards that flew at some speed high to the right of the despairing Tokarczyk.
The cross that set Vilhete up for his goal was supplied by the highly impressive Anthony Edgar with the former Yeovil Town player seen in a lengthy discussion after the game with Barnet’s Director of Football Paul Fairclough.
Barnet’s finishing during the first half was close on perfection, so it was something of a surprise when Tokarczyk saved Ricky Holmes 14th minute penalty – rightly awarded by referee Gavin Muge following a foul by the City keeper on Jon Nurse – only for Holmes to step forward to head home the rebound.
Two of the City new-boys combined in style on 14 minutes when a deep free kick by Graham on the Saints left was headed powerfully home by Fagan.
City’s riposte, however, did nothing to stem the wave of Barnet attacks on the Hatfield Road goal.
Four minutes after Fagan’s goal the ball took a slight deflection off him at the opposite end of the pitch as Nurse claimed his first goal following a low near post cross by Edgar.
Ollie Lee fired a free kick narrowly over for the visitors and Holmes forced Tokarczyk into a good save while Sean Shields went close for City before an Edgar corner was flicked on by Clovis Kamdjo for Nurse to tap the ball in on 34 minutes.
A loose pass by Fagan allowed Vilhete to burst forward and slid a precise pass into the path of Lee who fired at some speed to the right of the distraught Tokarczyk for the sixth Barnet goal on 36 minutes.
The second half saw both sides make numerous changes but with the match already over a contest was there was precious little to hold the interest of a decent sized crowd.
With Nick Jupp between the sticks after the restart City kept the Bees at bay for four minutes before Jordan Brown crowned a powerful run down the left by clipping a low cross into the goalmouth where Andy Yiadom, following a touch by Jake Hyde, drove home goal number seven.
Edgar proved himself to be a finisher of some note as well as a provider with two excellent efforts past the diving Jupp on 52 and 58 minutes.
The ‘honour’ of scoring the goal that saw City concede ten goals in a friendly for the first time in their history fell, ironically, to the Saints highest goal scorer of last season, Sakho Bakare. The Frenchman, on trial at Underhill, headed home following a cross by Yiadom.
City reduced the deficit to a mere eight on 81 minutes when Anton Blackwood cut the ball back from the Saints right for trialist Danny Spendlove to fire a blistering shot to the right of replacement Bees keeper Sam Cowler.
City’s only other eight-goal defeat in a friendly was 8-0 at home to Southend United in 1991 while St Albans also lost 9-2 at Leytonstone on Christmas Eve 1910.
St Albans City: A.Tokarczyk, C.Seeby, N.Bernard, D.Ijaha, J.Gray, A.Fagan, Se. Shields, M.Hyde, L.Toomey, R.Graham, R.Watts, subs used; N.Jupp, M.McEntagart, O.Cleaver, D.Parkinson, A.Everitt, D.Spendlove, A.Blackwood, A.Lansiquot, S.Martin.
Barnet: L.O’Brien, F.Warren, J.Brown, M.Byrne, C.Kamdjo, J.Fortune, O.Lee, M.Vilhete, J.Nurse, R.Holmes, A.Edgar, subs used: J.Hyde, S.Cowler, C.McLaren, A.Abdulla, J.Saville, A.Yiadom, T.McKenzie, E.Johnson, S.Bakare, L.Gambon.
Referee: Gavin Muge (Dunstable).