Back-to-back wins have Bees buzzing

It’s not too often you get your non-league team on the TV, especially if they aren’t troubling the top end of the table, but the BT Sport contract with the National League means every team appears at least once during the season.

Last season’s miserable effort from Barnet came in January this year, a 3-0 thumping from local rivals Boreham Wood was one you’d rather forget as was pretty much the whole season, a minging effort.

This time around Aldershot were the visitors to The Hive on Halloween weekend, a side who had also dispensed with their starting manager in Danny Searle lasting a week less than Harry Kewell in charge of the Bees. Whilst Barnet had seen some improvement under Dean Brennan the Shots have yet to see their side move forwards under Mark Molesley, fresh from last season’s disaster at Southend Utd.

With both sides desperate for points, there was a tentative start to the game and it was the Shots who settled quickest, the Bees having changed starting personnel again due to suspension and injury, Jordan Thomas and Joe Widdowson replaced by Sam Beard and Harry Taylor moving across the back four to right back.

A flurry of attacking intent and corners failed to produce anything of note for the visitors which in turn gave the home side the confidence to play their game, getting Ephron Mason-Clark on the ball and running at the Shots defence.

The Bees took the lead just before the half hour mark, Adam Marriott recycled a cross back into the box and Kian Flanagan was on hand to score his first goal in Barnet colours.

The goal gave the impetus to the home side and appeared to deflate the Shots forward play, not helped by an injury to winger Gime Toure who was causing the Bees skipper Taylor a few problems at right back.

Flanagan was at the heart of almost every attack as Barnet tried to add to their opener, Marriott unable to hit the target with a header whilst the young Bees midfielder skipped through challenges at ease but unable to see his work finished off by the supporting cast.

The Bees thought they had doubled their lead a minute before half time, a deft cross into the box from Mitch Brundle was headed home by Mason-Clark only to be ruled out for offside, TV replays showing the Barnet winger was onside.

Despite the interval halting momentum the Bees opened the second half brightly, which saw Molesley make a change bringing on Mo Sylla for his debut and an almost instant impact.

Minutes before the hour mark, Lewis Kinsella swung a free kick into the box, two Barnet defenders didn’t deal with it and the ball dropped kindly for Sylla to arrow past Aston Oxborough for the equaliser.

The goal gave Aldershot the confidence to put the pressure onto the home side and they struggled to regain composure given the visitors hunger for more goals, the lead nearly coming for them four minutes after they had scored, Flanagan in the right place on the line to divert the ball away.

With the Bees forced into a change after injury to Ben Richards-Everton, Serhat Tasdemir was added to the amount of creative players on the pitch in black and amber, despite this the game entered into a scrappy period where neither side could keep the ball nor create much when in possession.

Just as the game looked to be heading towards a share of the spoils, Barnet won it with four minutes left on the clock. A Flanagan corner was headed out to the edge of the box where Rob Hall took a touch and lashed it back past debutant keeper Lawrie Walker, a strike worthy of winning any game and celebrations from the home supporters.

The visitors will feel they should have stolen a second equaliser before stoppage time, nervy moments in the Barnet penalty area saw Mikael Ndojli head agonisingly wide of the far post while Marriott had the chance to seal a comfortable win in added time but Mason-Clark’s final ball sent the striker a little wide and his effort sailed over the bar, but three points stayed at The Hive and back to back wins for Brennan’s side for the first time this season.

The win pushes Barnet up to 14th in the table and on a run of just one defeat in the last seven games whilst the Shots stay firmly in the relegation zone with only one win in their last six games.

Some excellent performances in black and amber, Flanagan put in his best showing so far in a Bees shirt and must have run close for Man of the Match by Beard, a whole hearted non-stop performance from the returning full back.

Brundle also had one of his better games and Mason-Clark a constant threat as the game went on, whilst the centre half pairing of Richards-Everton and Reiss Greenidge looked a tough one to break through.

A week without a game gives some of the injured time to recover and there will be speculation over the vacant managerial position with a lack of football to talk about. Brennan you can’t argue has put himself in firmly in the driving seat after the disastrous appointment of Harry Kewell, play-off form is what the Bees are currently in with points per game return and the end of October was a good yardstick to see where the club were at.

There may be a case of ‘not currently broken, nothing to fix,’ but at some point, a decision has to be made as to whether someone else comes in somewhere in this structure or it gets abandoned just months after its inception.

Have to commend the club in the offer they put out before the game to entice people into the ground, it’s what we have been crying out for and whilst the attendance wouldn’t have been what the club was hoping for, I hope it doesn’t stop them looking at ways to do it again, my only criticism of it was the timing of it coming out.

We’ve known for weeks the game the was on TV, Halloween weekend and bonfire night in some towns too, people make plans early and I suspect a lot of them were too late to alter.

But the club are listening to supporters which can only be positive after years of not and this fanbase won’t increase again overnight, keep it going in the right direction like it is on the pitch and keep communicating and at long last Barnet FC might actually be looking upwards……..