It seems a long time since I was at The Hive for a competitive game, indeed it was Boxing Day although a trip up for a couple of interviews last Monday was the first for three weeks on the bounce.
After six successive away games which yielded three league wins and an FA Trophy win, the first of three home games in a row were more than welcome given the excessive amount of miles the team and supporters had travelled.
Altrincham were the visitors to Harrow fresh from defeating another play-off hopeful in Woking at the weekend, a long journey down from Manchester on a Tuesday night, fair play to all those who travelled.
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The Bees had the ball in the net early through Ryan De Havilland, correctly judged offside but it wasn’t long before the home side took the lead. A superbly weighted cross into the box from Jerome Okimo and the head of Harry Smith did the rest, the striker’s fifth goal in as many games to open the scoring, the perfect start.
They held the lead for eight minutes as the visitors broke, a huge but so far unconfirmed suspicion of offside against Jordan Hulme who broke away, briefly denied by Laurie Walker, the ball falling nice for him to slot home into an empty net for the equaliser.
Four minutes later Barnet were back in front. A corner whipped in from the right hand side found Harry Pritchard’s head for his tenth of the season, helped over the line by a couple of bodies.
On the stroke of half time a remarkable save from Oliver Byrne from a 20 yard Dale Gorman effort that was destined for the top corner until the outstretched hand of the keeper reached it in time.
That was as good as it got for the Bees as the visitors levelled within six minutes of the re-start, a corner swung in and not dealt with, the ball landing in the net via Max Oyedele.
Barnet launched forward aiming to re-take the lead, but instead it was the visitors who went in front for the first time on the evening, 66 minutes in and Harry Pritchard was caught in possession just outside the penalty area by Regan Linney who stole into the box and finished calmly.
Nicke Kabamba had a couple of headers that failed to work the keeper enough and the visitors sealed the win on 76 mins, a counter attack on the Bees goal saw Tyrese Sinclair outstrip Sam Beard and finish past Laurie Walker and no way back for the home side.
If ever there was an advert for a game of two halves, this would be a huge candidate. Barnet very good in the first half, but a little devoid of ideas in the second, credit massively to the visitors who didn’t crumble and grew stronger as the game went on.
Three defeats in a row now for Barnet having gone unbeaten for three months, the cushion in the play-off’s is currently enough and there are plenty more games to turn the form around again, I’d rather the blip happens now instead of April when the damage can’t be repaired.
It’s a reminder as well that there are no easy games in this division and any drop in standard is picked up on immediately, the games come thick and fast so no time now to dwell on the defeat, onto the next one.
There are couple of players who look like they have nothing left in the tank at present, it’s time for one or two others to step up and put in a few performances over the next couple of weeks, it’s a squad game after all.
I would like to see us go back to one up top, reason being we don’t look as fluid and it appears to be diluting Nicke Kabamba’s game as well, now without a goal in X games, but if you with a single striker, do you leave out the top scorer with 17 goals or the man in form with 5 in 5? Glad I’m not paid to make these decisions, a win now is needed on Saturday as Aldershot head to The Hive, the season however is still very much alive……..
