For the first time this season it was a Saturday afternoon trip to The Hive as Barnet took on Maidenhead, my three previous trips being midweek and a Bank Holiday Monday.
So far this season the Vanarama National League has thrown up the kind of results that would turn a betting man to drink, consistent at times but all over the place at others, Barnet being on the receiving end of a few, but dishing out a couple themselves.
A clean sheet in the FA Cup win the previous weekend, a return to winning ways was needed though against a side many tip for relegation each season but Alan Devonshire defies the odds constantly with a part time club in a full time world.
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Lining up in a 3-5-2 formation with a few missing at centre half, Idris Kanu and Ben Wynter as the wing backs, going away from Brennan’s preferred 4-3-3 press.
The Bees had most of the positive play through the first half, the Magpies finding it hard to get any joy from the Barnet back three, Jerome Okimo winning all in the air, Dom Revan taking care of all coming his way and Danny Collinge mopping up when the ball did find its way past the two beside him.
Despite the direct running of Kanu which was causing a few problems for the Maidenhead back line and Nicke Kabamba being a nuisance to both centre halves, Barnet were restricted to half chances.
The goal however did come soon after the half hour mark, a beautiful piece of passing play between Rob Hall and Ryan De Havilland worked the ball out wide to Wynter whose perfect cross found Kabamba and the striker made no mistake to give the Bees the lead.
Soon after De Havilland thought he had doubled the Bees lead; his effort was in all the way but a first class save from Daniel Gyollai tipped the ball over the bar. Four minutes before half time the midfielder once again thought he had found the net but a second superb save from Gyollai this time tipped the ball around the post and Barnet had to settle for a one goal half time lead.
The Bees made a sluggish start to the second half and despite a couple of efforts within the first ten minutes it was against the run of play and a lifeline handed to the visitors, a combination of Laurie Walker and a Bees defender clattering Will De Havilland, ex Bee Charlee Adams levelling things up from the penalty spot, the balance of play no more than they deserved.
The changer for me, the double substitution with just under 20 minutes to play, Hall and Dale Gorman for Sean Shields and Marvin Armstrong with immediate response.
A Shields cross that he had no right to dig out from the very inch of the white line saw Kabamba head just over when he would have expected to score. Two minutes later Kanu who had a quiet second half saw his effort spilled by Gyollai but Kabamba couldn’t get on the loose to turn it home.
With eight minutes to go Barnet re-took the lead as the game swung in their favour on the back of those substitutions, Wynter again the architect as his ball across the area was spilled into the path of Armstrong and the midfielder netted his first in Barnet colours.
The game could and should have been put to bed a minute later, Kanu fouled inside the box but incredibly the referee decided he dived, booked the winger for simulation and marched over to send off Brennan for remarks made.
The Bees saw out the final minutes and stoppage time without too much drama to record a sixth win of the season and moved up to 10th in the table after 14 games.
A hard-fought win which had either or both of De Havilland’s efforts gone in before half time would probably have seen a more comfortable win for the home side however nothing comes easy, and three points is three points.
No doubt in my mind that making those changes won Barnet the game, not to say Gorman had a bad game nor Hall for that matter, the latter though didn’t deliver enough for me across the afternoon despite finding some excellent pockets of space.
Quite impressed with Revan for a first-time viewing, looks strong and didn’t matter which striker they tried to put up against him he played them both well. Despite his two assists Wynter still for me hasn’t set the world alight and you could hear in the first half both John Dreyer and Kirk Rayment berating him for not keeping wide and constantly drifting inside.
Kanu clearly ran out of steam, a product of not enough football which you would expect to see improve as the months go on but showed enough that if he can do it consistently over the course of a game then we have a player on our hands.
A word too on Kabamba, 10 goals so far from 14 starts is a fantastic effort and could easily have had many more already this year, very good chance he’ll hit 20 by Xmas if he stays injury free.
As a few of you saw on Twitter Nick Patel and I saw Tony Kleanthous after the game and grabbed a 10-minute chat. He agreed with us on some points on what we asked him, and I’ll try and get those across on my Barnet blog ‘So you won’t believe what happened at Barnet FC’ (find it at trevorknell.substack.com) sometime this week.
Quick turnaround for the National League’s three divisions with a midweek programme, a trip to Bromley for me and back at The Hive on Friday as Scunthorpe Utd head to London, a whole week of Bees football, no regrets hopefully…….
