The busy Bank Holiday weekend came to a close on Monday with yet another Barnet game and a trip to The Hive after a few hours work, the 5.15pm kick off working nicely for me.
It was important for the Bees to bounce back after Friday’s first defeat of the season to Chesterfield and would be a good show of the mettle Dean Brennan’s squad have. Missing both Danny Collinge and Ryan De Havilland who picked up knocks from that game had a few slightly concerned this might be a long and tough afternoon.
In front of the BT Sport cameras and a good-sized home support courtesy of a ticket offer from the Woking home match, it was the visitors Eastleigh who began far the brighter of the two, the Bees seemingly sluggish and struggling despite the almost extra day’s rest compared to their Hampshire visitors.
The content below was originally paywalled.
It wasn’t until 15 minutes into the half did the Bees start to get a foothold in the game, half chances for Dale Gorman and Nicke Kabamba not troubling Joe McDonnell. Both sides then traded chances as they sought the opening goal and it finally arrived on 28 minutes.
Gorman’s corner into the front post was deftly flicked in by Harry Pritchard for his first goal in Barnet colours against his old club. Less than ten minutes later it was two goals to the good. There appeared no danger as Sean Shields picked up the ball on the left hand side, turned his man inside out, beat a few more and stuck a reverse shot past McDonnell, the keeper rooted to the spot and the Bees in dreamland.
Eastleigh could and possibly should have pulled one back in first half stoppage time, Moussa Diarra and Jerome Okimo making a hash of a simple ball between them and luckily the Spitfires didn’t take advantage to send Barnet in 2-0 up at half time.
An early chance for Eastleigh in the second half went wide of the target and they were made to rue that half chance as Barnet made the game safe ten minutes into the half.
A ball in from the left hand side recycled by Pritchard saw it tip off an Eastleigh head onto the left boot of Rob Hall who unleashed a stunning volley from 12 yards out, my initial thought from the low down view of Block D where Nick Patel likes us to sit it looked 20 yards out, maybe that was given the excitement of the strike, me celebrating afterwards and not really noticing where Rob Hall was before he wheeled away with delight!
That goal did effectively end the game as a contest with Barnet repelling everything the Spitfires were launching their way and although the substitutions from the visitors did spark a little bit of life and a goal for Eastleigh arrived seven minutes from time, Callum Ebanks getting in front of Sam Beard no more than a consolation.
Danny Whitehall almost had a second and Barnet hearts in their mouths, but a superb save from Laurie Walker tipped the ball onto the bar and over, the resulting corner producing nothing as the Bees saw out the final few minutes with no alarms in front of 1974, not bad with the game being televised and a rise back up into second place.
Brennan conceded afterwards we weren’t at our best and indeed we did play better on Friday evening, but the mark of a good side is one who digs out results when not at the top of their game. Some will argue it’s been the case for a majority of the wins we’ve achieved so far, quite frankly I’m really not too fussed after the disasters of the past two years, we’re due some going our way.
Some good performances put in out there, Sam Beard has looked back to himself in the last two games and to give the back four credit they looked far more comfortable in the second half.
Dale Gorman just continues to be Dale Gorman, he does the crappy stuff, he’s streetwise, takes the sting out of a game, shithousery at it’s finest and something we’ve cried out for two years running.
I’ve seen a few dig out Connor Smith, his only job to start with was to shield the defensive duo which I felt he did exactly that, allowed Gorman and Pritchard to dictate after Dean made the tactical change. I also someone dig out Kian Flanagan, poor guy has played 20 minutes of football since February and that was on Friday, no surprise he’s going to be a little rusty, bit of sensibility please.
Sean Shields you can just keep praising and praising, two top strikes in two games and again we’re seeing the benefits of a goal scoring midfield and you know Rob Hall just has that in his locker. Nice to see Marvin get a few minutes at the end,  high hopes for this guy as I’ve seen a lot of him at Worthing, he will be an asset when he’s up to full speed.
Great to see Ben Strevens afterwards doing a little bit of BT punditry in and around the 90 mins, top man who deserves to be back in the game, apparently Scunthorpe, Bournemouth and Dundee Utd are all too far away!
So far, so good, the wheels keep moving one game at a time, there is another topic not for this blog piece to cover so hopefully that’ll be out later in the week, who knows it might the first piece on the new incoming Bees blog…….
