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The UCFB podcast discusses an exclusive interview with Nicky Kabamba, a player for Barnet FC. Kabamba is determined to win the Golden Boot and get promoted. The podcast also discusses the issues with Barnet's defense, including lack of communication and frequent changes in the lineup. The manager, Dean Brennan, is under pressure but fans are worried about him leaving. The podcast emphasizes the need for stability and trust in the manager. Despite recent struggles, there is still hope for improvement and success in the National League. Hello everyone and welcome to UCFB's podcast with me, Mateo, and I'm joined by Kyle, Liam and Najif. First things first, I want to talk to Kyle just briefly about our exclusive interview we did with Nicky Kavamba a couple of weeks back, which is now on our website, which is ucfb.worxpress.com. How was he? He was a nice guy. He comes across like a nice guy. Obviously I got into contact with the media guy at Barnet and managed to secure an interview with Nicky. He was a good guy to be fair and we got some good info out of him about the season so far and his career in general. One thing that stuck out was his humility. Although he scored 19 goals this year, he's already looking for more. He knows that he's up against Paul McCallum, who's a great striker as well, in a race for the Golden Boot. The title of the article is we'll get promoted and I'll win the Golden Boot, so it's looking like he's on track for that. He's a good guy as well. When I saw him for the first time actually play in real life on Saturday, he's just all about the goals, isn't he? He just manages to score from wherever. Anyway, moving on to the other two, Barnet, let's talk about their defence and how dire it was. Well, well, well. I don't know about anyone else, but I saw the performance against Newport a couple of days ago. There was a lot to say. It looks a bit disjointed at the moment, I can't lie. I know Newport are a higher league side, but regardless, there were some basic key principles of defending missing there. You see, lack of communication between the keeper and the centre-backs, which has happened a couple of times actually. Especially Wollensheim's first minute of the game and then conceding that own goal because Collins didn't actually end up listening to Walker and ended up heading into his own net. So I think that's going to be a big issue and they need to sort it out if they want to get promoted this season. Do you think the lack of communication is because he's changing up the defence pretty much every game? Possibly, but I feel like as a team you need to be able to chop and change easily. You need to be able to communicate with all your teammates effectively to be able to enable your manager to switch. Especially in the National League where you're playing many games a season as well as because you've got the FA Trophy, FA Cup. You've even got the National League itself which is quite filled with pitches. So you need to be able to chop and change your teammates and be able to communicate effectively. I mean, personally I think their loss to Chesterfield messed with them psychologically. I think it started a downward spiral, didn't it? I feel like they've not been back to their best since. I thought on Saturday they would be, but I was wrong. Yeah, I feel like Saturday, I think, who do they play Saturday again? They play Maystone, yeah. So I knew it was a high scoring game, I mean it sounds like they don't know much. I do remember seeing it, Kabamba bagged a few and it goes on what Kyle said and what he said in his interview. He thinks he can get the golden boot, he just needs to prove it now in the league. Yeah, but I think the game against Maystone is the game they should be winning and they won. But we've seen in the last, I think, seven games they've only won one game and they've also conceded 18. So yes, you could blame the players, but no matter who's playing that is a mistake. So I think you've got to look at the manager and Dean Brennan also because you could change the defence, you could change the shape, you could change the players. But if the same mistakes are keeping on happening, no matter who's playing, then there's only one man to look at and that is the manager. For example, against Newport you would see them, as in you see them drew in the first game because I feel like he was more reserved in the first game. Especially away from home, he wanted to keep it tight and he did keep it tight. And it obviously ended in a 1-1, but you're at home in front of your fans and they conceded three goals in transition. I've seen that happen in the last few games and there's a saying that if you win it creates a good habit, but also if you lose it creates a bad habit as well. And I feel like that's what's happening right now with not only the manager but the players and also the fans. But Najeeb, what did you actually think of their defence? I know you went to go and see the Harrow versus Barnet game a couple of weeks ago. The Wolves stand, yeah. A game like that, especially because it's a derby, I would understand why the players... And the fans conceding goals in a derby, obviously don't get me wrong, I feel like in a derby it's more about the passion and who wants to win it more. And what I saw from the Wolves home players was every 50-50 they were jumping in, every tackle the fans were throwing. Obviously they were at home so they're going to have the fans on their side, but sometimes it's the psychological intention, not only what's being said online. And obviously as I said before, losing is a habit, and obviously they've lost at their last few games. So it is looking a bit bleak, especially that the fans, they were on a high, especially early on in the season, now it's dropped all of a sudden. So I don't know what you boys have got to say about their form, but I don't know. I just want to allude to something I've mentioned before, which is the fact that he's talked about in his post-match a lot about how his philosophy is man-to-man. Defending, and like I said, staying back against Newport helped him a lot. But after the Newport replay, he's saying that we need to go back to a direct style of winning football, as he calls it. Because the goals they've conceded are so poor and they all come as a result of counter-attacks in the Oldham game, which I went to. They lost 4-1 as well, and all of the goals were on the transition. Just one ball, and the whole defence is split open. And he, like I think Mateo alluded to, he keeps changing the defence. And on Tuesday, he put a Findlay Porter at centre-back. A Findlay Porter's a 19-year-old, he's just come from Sheffield United, and he's barely played central centre-back this season. So to put him up against Omar Brogan, who's one of the best strikers in League 2, a strong physical specimen, he's obviously going to struggle. So I think, like you talked about in this post-match, he needs to just start playing direct football, winning football, and switch away from his philosophy to stop the rot. Just speaking about Dean Brennan, he hasn't been able to cope with his defence recently, but we've heard in the last few weeks that he's favoured for the birdie job. So is there now more pressure on him, and are the fans putting him under more pressure, and do you think he'll leave? I think it's the opposite, actually. Fans are worried that he could leave. Because when he took over, he won it at the lower end of the National League last season, and he took them to a good position. But they're in the play-off, so for him to leave, it would just remove all that progress they've made in the last year or so. They'd have to find a new replacement, and maybe a new style of football that could affect them. But potentially that manager balance could put them on a winning streak, and keep them up there with Chesterfield. I think that before Dean came in, there were so many manager changes before that, and there was no stability at the club. I think that is a way to go for Barney at the moment, and in the near future, to stabilise him. Yeah, I completely agree. Obviously you did say about the new manager balance, but that's not 100%. If the current manager and the players have a very good connection, which from my perspective it's all that they do, if you stack that manager who they trust and who they put their faith into, that question is going to be asked about the people, the manager of the board and of the players, unless it all gets connected to the club. Right now obviously it is a tough form, and it is tough, especially in the National League when you're playing every few days, and you don't have a big, bloated squad, it's very hard for you to keep your players fit and keep them fighting. But in the National League, literally anything can happen. You could win three or four games, and you could climb up six or seven places. It's just about form, and right now it does seem a bit bleak for them, but you have to trust the manager, especially if he's getting linked to jobs which are obviously League Two and higher, then I truly do believe that he's a top manager, and he does deserve the time and the respect from not only the fans, but also from the media. I think I can back up what these two boys have said as well, to be honest. When you're getting considered next to Gary Rowett, who's also a contender for that Burton job, who's had the high praise of nearly getting 0-1 to the Premier League last season, they missed out on the playoffs unfortunately in the last game, and stuff like that. It's a credit to Dean Brennan because he has lifted up this Barnett side, and as they've said, it'll be a big hit if he goes, because I don't think they'll be able to find someone that's good enough to keep Barnett in the playoff positions as it stands. As he's doing, he can just find a way to get Barnett back to winning ways, I think. But if they were to lose him, yeah, I think it would be a big blow. The last thing about Dean and Burton is he's got two years left on his contract, so even if Burton won him, they'd have to make compensation. So I don't think so. I think he'll stay and sort of see how the project ends. You think he'll see how his contract ends? Yeah, definitely see how his contract ends. But he has notoriously left clubs before, like Hamilton and Wilson, to go on to bigger things. Before his contract, yeah. We all know that you can't win every game in football, so Barnett are just going through a bad period at the moment, but do we all think promotions on the table, or has that lost to Chesterfield a few weeks back? They could have finished above them, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen anymore. Well, I was going to say, I feel like if they can get back to winning ways, then anything can happen. But if you're looking at this current moment in time, where they've only managed to get one win out of the last seven, it's just not good enough to get into the playoffs, let alone get promoted. So you'd have to have a look at that, to be honest. I think they're third at the moment? They're currently third, and they're five points from fourth. So they have a five-point cushion. They've still got a cushion between them and them playoff places, but they're going to make it hard for themselves if they keep losing games like they have been losing in the last couple of weeks. I think the problem is, the teams that are below them, Gateshead and Aldershot, not really solid hold moments to their fourth, but Gateshead and Aldershot are in great form at the moment. Aldershot will be top four if they do well around the top of League Two. Their form and buy-in are on a downward, even though they won against... I mean, in the league, they've lost four out of five. Yeah, they haven't played a league game for a week or so. We're waiting to see how they bounce back against Eddisfield on Saturday. I still do think that promotion is still on the cards. Maybe not coming first and getting that automatic promotion, but obviously through the playoffs, they have a chance. I think they do have a very strong squad. They have a game in hand to Bromley, and if they win and they go, same point. Right now, the biggest problem, as we said before, is them conceding goals. Now, the question that you have to ask is, how do you stop them conceding goals? Whether that's to change the tactics or to continue to create managers. I think he just needs to go back to how he played against Newport away. He needs to set a team-up like that. That's not his philosophy, though. That's the problem. They're going to find their way down the table, then. I think sometimes when you're in a tough form, you need to go back to basics. Right now, he needs to go back to basics. If you're doing the basics right, then you can move on to the more complicated stuff in order to find your form again. Why was it working a month ago and two months ago to now? Because that's how it's been playing and it's been working. It was working because he had players that were in form first and foremost, and they were firing. For instance, Nicky scored all of his goals in the first period of the season, but now he's only scored in the league one in seven. That was against Wilston a lot. I think he's quite isolated. The one thing I've talked about on Twitter and other socials is that Barnett don't really have a right side at all. When you watch them, all the play goes down the left to Idris Kani. I think that's something that needs to be rectified in the January transfer window. Speaking about the transfers just there, the money they would have got for getting food for the next time they left the club would have massively helped them, but now they can't do that. They had a favourable time at home if they had got food, but that was achieved. They've still got the FA trophy, though, to be fair. It's tough to play at Wembley. I think with the FA Cup, if you were to ask a Barnett fan whilst you're going into the game against Newport, I think they most likely would have thought it would have been a loss anyway. I don't think they'll look at it in terms of money point of view. I think mainly the fans will be looking at it and worried about how they play because Newport, especially the reputation of the last few seasons, they're a hard side to beat. The players are tough, you know what they're going to do. They're going to sit back, they're going to hit you on the break. We saw that in the first game. The worrying thing to the fans, to the manager, and to the media alone is how they bounce back. That's the biggest question. I've got a question. I feel like from what we've seen that Barnett have been trying to get a cut from onside, I feel like that would lift the mood really, especially in the FA Trophy now because that's one of the only trophies they can go for this season. Do you think that the Cup allowed Barnett to get a hard reset on their league? As Kyle said earlier, they've not had a league game in a week, which is quite a long time in the National League. Do you think that may have allowed them to regroup and hopefully come back stronger in the next league game? I think that if they would have got a result against Newport, then I think it would have been fine. But now they've lost another game by a big margin. It's sort of the confidence that's been knocked again. And Ebb Street away is a tough game, even though they're in the relegation zone. So they need to get a result and that sort of kick on. Now it's the Christmas period. They've got a lot of games coming up. They've got Southend, Twyce, they've got Bromwood. These are all games that are... One of them is a derby. They're going to be tough. I think that they need to go back to basics. When a play balls up to Nicky so he can hold it up, stop conceding goals in the transition. I think they just need to stabilise. These games are all must-wins at the moment for Barnett. Just checking here on the table, between eighth and third place, there's only nine points in it. So all you have to do is lose a few and the people behind you win a few. And then you're down. They can't afford to do that at the moment. Just to finish up, what's your prediction for Barnett for the end of the season? Do you think they're going to get promoted or not? I think they will finish second or third and get a home sign. I think they have to because they need to show progress from last season. That would be a step further than they got last season. So I think they'll get into the play-offs. For me, I think it's the same thing. I'm going to repeat what Kyle said. I think they will get second or third. I think they will get a play-off home tie. I really do think that they can get promoted. All it takes is a few games to turn your form around. I do want to be positive for Barnett. I do think their manager and players can turn it around. And hopefully the match bonus plan can help them and support them too. I'm going to be the pantomime baddie here. I'm going to say that I don't think they'll get promoted. Especially if they continue the way they're going at the moment. Obviously, I do hope that Barnett get promoted. But I'm looking realistically and I don't think they will get promoted. Just off of some of the signs we've seen in the last few games. They might get play-offs, don't get me wrong. It might be a big drop-off. It will have to be a very big drop-off if they drop out of the play-offs. But I feel like they don't think they will get further than the play-offs. Personally, I think they will get to the play-offs. But I agree with Liam. I'm not sure right now they have what it takes to be promoted this season. But that's all the time we've got today. So thanks for tuning in. Cheers Mateo. Thanks for having me.