Barnet boss Dean Brennan insists everyone around the club deserves acclaim after he was recognised with the Sports Ground Development Manager of the Year award at the National Game Awards in association with Isuzu.
Since making the switch from Wealdstone in 2021, Brennan has helped the Bees blossom from relegation fodder to National League champions as they ended their seven-year exile from the English Football League in style after racking up 102 points.
But Brennan insists Barnet’s successes on-and-off the pitch owe as much to the work of everyone in and around the club and not just those in the dugout.
“We’re all together in this,” said the former Hitchin, Stevenage and Grays Athletic manager. “I always tell everybody, you have to get together to create success in this business and we’ve done it.
“We haven’t got promoted with finances or loads of money or anything like that. We’ve just done it with good old-fashioned hard work and honest people.
“These kind of awards, that’s a testament to everybody. It’s not just my award, it’s everybody’s award. All the coaching staff, all the players – everyone’s as important as each other.
“How big a part you play, how little a part you play, it doesn’t matter – it all has the same importance in my opinion. So I’m immensely proud to win manager of the year for all those people and it’s a real shame I can’t be there in person.”
The National Game Awards is a celebration of the non-League season – highlighting the community, fans, on-field, and off-field successes of the game outside of the Football League.
The ceremony is held annually by the Non-League Paper, the UK’s number one selling football title and the best place for your non-league news, with this year’s edition hosted at Plough Lane – home of AFC Wimbledon.
Accepting the Sports Ground Development Manager of the Year award on Brennan’s behalf was faithful assistant manager Connor Smith and he declared that the season could not have gone better for Barnet after playoff heartbreak in previous campaigns.
Smith said: “It has been amazing. We got over heartbreak the last two years in the play-offs and last year was really disappointing, we were head and shoulders the second best team in the league but didn’t do ourselves justice in the playoffs.
“It’s well documented that myself and the gaffer stayed around for two, three days after the playoffs and got to work building the team.
“We said it wouldn’t happen again and to rack up over 100 points is an unbelievable achievement and testament to the fans, players and staff, it has been an amazing season for all of us.
“We set out to win the league and not awards but to do it off the back of a successful season makes it even better. It’s amazing to be here and I’m so pleased for the whole club. Everyone deserves it.”
The Non-League Paper is the UK’s number one selling football title, available every Sunday. For more information please visit www.thenonleaguefootballpaper.com
Featured image credit: Matt Bristow
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