Barnet manager Dean Brennan lifts lid on viral rant against his own fans that kickstarted National League title bid

"I'll move on then if that's what they want. Get someone else to do the job because I'm sick and tired of them. Just a miserable, moany lot. What's wrong with them? Get behind the team."

From Hemel Hempstead to Billericay Town to Wealdstone to Barnet. Dean Brennan, a proud and passionate Dubliner, has never minced his words and, this time, even his own supporters were on the receiving end of a rant that went viral after their late victory over Altrincham in September.

"When you're in the tough times, you see the real characters, the real people," said the Barnet boss, who left inner-city Dublin as a teenager to pursue his football dream, in the post-match interview that has gathered hundreds of thousands of views.

"That's what I'm looking for in this group, character, and I want our fans to come with us. There's a message for you. Do not edit that. I want that to go out because that's very important."

Brennan, 44, was prepared to call out the Barnet fans on the club's own media channel in their pursuit of the EFL. They now sit 11 points clear at the top of the National League table knowing 17 more from their final eight games will guarantee the title.

"You never hear anybody say it but we won the next five on the bounce," Brennan tells VidSport Live of the impact that interview had on his side. Their current form is 11 wins in 12. But what if Barnet's season hadn't taken off?

"I'd have been slaughtered but you've got to be yourself. I say that to the players all the time. Represent your family name, represent your heritage and be yourself. You can't just hide away behind the back of the sofa, can you?

"I was asked to do interviews about it from all over the world and I turned them down because I didn't want it to be a laughing stock. It wasn't a stunt. It was just me being me.

"I want to see myself as a serious manager and I think I've been that."

Brennan has opened the club's doors at the Hive Stadium to VidSport Live and it's clear just how serious he is.

When this journalist enters the manager's windowless office at 10am on Thursday, he is buried in a laptop studying video of Saturday's opponents Altrincham before captain Jerome Okimo, also player-coach, soon joins to discuss set-pieces.

At 10.45am, Brennan, currently studying for his UEFA A Licence with the FAI (Football Association of Ireland), delivers a tactical analysis to the squad from inside the home dressing room, running through 16 short clips of the good and the bad.

The league leaders are in a jovial mood and it's clear Brennan is the heart and soul. He knows what a title-winning side looks and feels like, having clinched championships with Hemel and Wealdstone. He has built this team over the last three seasons - the previous two ending in play-off defeats - with a target set of 100 points.

As the players enjoy a training drill called 'waves', five-vs-five matches focused on fast transitions, Brennan, watching on in the spring sunshine, says: "If I didn't turn up today and I left a load of balls and bibs, the players would take the session themselves. That's the focus they have and the leadership they've shown."

Brennan later laughs, jokes and plans in his office with his assistant Connor Smith, another Irishman who played under the boss at Barnet, Wealdstone and Billericay, before breaking away to blast some homemade Irish stew in a microwave for the pair's lunch and watching a Martin Lewis video on how to save money on electric vehicle tax. "He's a cracking fella!"

It's a team effort, highlighted by goalkeeping coach Craig Holloway, strength and conditioning coach Liam O'Meara, analyst Danny Hutchins and head physiotherapist Jade Doran all coming and going with updates on players and logistics as preparation increases for their trip north.

"I absolutely love what I do," says Brennan. "I wouldn't change it for any job in the world. Barnet has got me to fall back in love with football. That's what Tony Kleanthous has done for me. But he's also fallen back in love with it. When I got here, he hated it. He was done with it. You could see that the place was decaying."

Kleanthous is Barnet's long-standing owner-chairman. He is a successful businessman and has spent a fortune on the club, although hasn't always been popular with supporters after overseeing an out-of-town move from their Underhill Stadium to their current site in Harrow.

Attendances have never been the same since and it's part of the reason why supporters have become a "miserable, moany lot" and why Brennan took aim at them to get behind his title contenders.

"Last time we were at The Hive we had nearly 4,000 people there," says Brennan. "I think that night [against Altrincham] we had about 900 here."

Brennan himself had reservations about Barnet. He twice turned down the job before eventually becoming head of football with former Liverpool winger Harry Kewell as manager.

"I had no plans to go back in after what happened to me at my previous club," he says of the falling out between his long-standing assistant Stuart Maynard - now the manager at Notts County - and the Wealdstone owner.

"Everyone told me to stay away from here. Not one person told me to come here. 'Chairman's a nightmare'. It's this, it's that.

"I felt the owner was honest. I felt he was straight-talking. He's challenging, there's no doubt about that. We've had a very open, honest relationship and I suppose friendship now. At times it gets heated. Not too long ago, I had a huge argument with him, but I argue with my wife and we still make up and love each other."

Kewell lasted just seven winless games before being sacked - Kleanthous' 25th managerial change in the previous 15 years - and in stepped Brennan, whose recruitment, coupled with his man-management skills, are his major strengths.

What perhaps is most impressive is how he has transitioned from being a part-time manager, starting aged 31, to a professional one, attracting interest from League One and League Two clubs in the last two years.

"We had no Wyscout or anything like that back then. Just debriefing or analysing a game or opposition would take hours and hours and hours. I've changed, I've matured."

It hasn't all been easy. He left Hemel after seven years to become Billericay manager but that imploded within four months under eccentric then-owner Glenn Tamplin.

"Even though it was the worst experience, it was the best because it showed me how not to run a football club."

Brennan then resigned after only five games at Kingstonian before resurrecting his career at Wealdstone. Now he is on the cusp of his greatest achievement.

"I'd have snapped your hand off to be on 85 points with eight games left. The great thing for us is we're playing so well and I'm really enjoying watching us."

There are no miserable or moany Barnet fans watching them now.