Dean Brennan has insisted that Barnet's "winning mentality" needs to continue throughout their 2026/2027 campaign after comfortably beating Arsenal U21s 5-1 at the Hive on Tuesday night. (Image: Micah Ricketts / M.Rich Photography)
Dean Brennan has insisted that Barnet's "winning mentality" needs to continue throughout their 2026/2027 campaign after comfortably beating Arsenal U21s 5-1 at the Hive on Tuesday night. (Image: Micah Ricketts / M.Rich Photography)
Barnet manager Dean Brennan insisted that the “winning mentality” instilled at the club was the key reason for his side’s thumping 5-1 EFL Trophy triumph over Arsenal U21s.
In an Arsenal team featuring the likes of Ife Ibrahim, Andre Harriman-Annous, and Theo Julienne—all of whom played for the first team in preseason—the Gunners were overwhelmed by Barnet’s determination to win every second ball and compete for lost causes, as a hat-trick from winger Tom Knowles and a goal each from Bright Siaw and Jack Maskall secured an emphatic victory.
“The main thing for us is the serial-winning mentality. We want to keep that mentality at the football club,” Brennan told the club website post-match. “It was great to learn from some of the Arsenal kids, but some of our young lads shone bright tonight. We’ve got our own young lads who have bright futures themselves.
After the 3-1 win over Salford City on the opening day of League Last weekend, Brennan felt it was necessary to make wholesale changes to this team with the tricky test of Shrewsbury Town on the horizon this weekend.
“Some needed it. It was good for them. We’ve got a young group who are extremely young,” said the Barnet boss. “The main thing for us now is to continue that winning mentality and take it into Saturday. There’s no point in doing what we did against Salford and doing what we’ve done tonight and then not backing that up on Saturday, because that is what it’s all about.
“For us, tonight, there were lots of positive performances. There was good physicality to our game, and it was great to learn from the Arsenal lads.”
Brennan identified a key difference between the two sides, despite fielding some of the younger players in his squad whose ages differ from those of Arsenal by only a couple of years.
In an interesting analysis of the performance, Brennan explained: “We got on the front foot and we got at the opposition.We played our phases; obviously, they are coached that way. The advantage we have is physicality.
“I thought, tactically, we were good, and our press was good. We made a lot of physical entries against them. We pressed them high up the pitch; I think their first effort on our goal was 20 minutes into the game. I’m proud of our football club tonight. We’ve come a long way in a short space of time, and everybody deserved a pat on the back tonight, especially our younger players, as it’s mainly their night to be totally honest.”
Brennan’s focus now shifts back to the club’s league commitments with a trip west to face Shrewsbury Town, looking to secure back-to-back opening League Two wins for the first time since sealing promotion back to the fourth tier.