The autumn afternoons and evenings are now in full swing and despite some Saturday sunshine a cold chill when the clouds preceded the warm sunshine. It’s been a week of driving for football catch up’s and games, the weekend was a second trip to Essex for the final qualifying round of the FA Cup.
Barnet headed to National League South Aveley, a ground I actually wanted to visit this season, a brand new facility. I had made it to their old ground quite a few years ago to watch Wroxham in Step 4 action for the first time, situated in great view of the London City airport runway and a constant stream of planes taking off that evening.
Their new ground not a million miles away from the previous one had been given some rave reviews across social media along with the food offering as well so it was on the list to go to, killing two birds with one stone.
The content below was originally paywalled.
The Bees went strong in their line up possibly looking to get the tie won early and then resting a few players for the remainder of the game. And they were in front very early in the tie, just four minutes into the game the ball fell nicely for Harry Pritchard inside the penalty area to fire home.
The visitors were then forced into an early change the returning Ben Coker pulling up to be replaced by Sam Beard. However, it didn’t disrupt the momentum and Barnet doubled their lead on 19 minutes through Pritchard once again.
The ball fell kindly to the midfielder in almost the same position as his first goal and a deflection helped take the ball out of the keeper’s reach and into the net, the hosts looking a little shellshocked early in the game.
Beard had a great chance with a free header just before the half hour mark but was way off target, a better effort from the same player narrowly cleared the bar as well.
The Bees were in full control of the half bar one effort from the hosts as Laurie Walker scuffed a back pass away to an Aveley forward who shot past the post. With half time looming Barnet were looking good value for a two goal lead but a long throw in their penalty area wasn’t dealt with and a great overhead kick from Matt Rush put the Millers back in the tie three minutes before the interval.
The first good chance of the second half fell to the visitors, Finley Potter crashing the ball against the crossbar ten minutes in, soon after Zak Brunt was on the end of a perfect through ball but the onrushing Jonathan North gave the midfielder no space to lift the ball over the top of him.
The following fifteen minutes went a little bit scrappy, Aveley aggrieved at a few fouls not coming their way, Barnet not forcing the game to make the tie safe. Charlee Hughes was rightly dismissed with 11 minutes to go, leading with an elbow on Potter and a second yellow card followed by red to see the striker sent off.
Five minutes from time Garrett Kelly was also shown a second yellow card to reduce the home side to nine men, not for the foul he committed but presumably for something he said after to the referee.
The Bees couldn’t see out time without conceding an equaliser, Jon Benton squeezing the ball inside Walker’s far post to send the home fans into raptures and despite eight minutes of injury time neither side forced a winner and onto a replay at The Hive on Tuesday evening.
The visitors will no doubt be disappointed not to have capitalised on their fine start but didn’t create too much in the way of clear cut chances to add to their tally in the first half.
On the balance of play the hosts deserved their second half leveller, there were enough moment of pressure to make their advantage count but weren’t taken and they should have seen the game out when Aveley were reduced to nine men.
Indiscipline certainly crept into their game, one or two more were lucky not to find their way into the referee’s book with a constant moan at decision’s, they rarely change their mind do they! There were a few occasions where Barnet players were lucky to get away without fouls or bookings against, club Twitter accounts are however a little unprofessional looking when they don’t balance up some things when you have a read back a couple of days later.
Fine games from Pritchard and Callum Stead who made sure the home defence always had something to think about, Ben Wynter provided some good width throughout the game on the right hand side but that clinical side needs to be more evident again to take the chances when they arrive.
Certainly a nice facility Aveley have with enough cover and seating with a good looking bar and main stand area, the pitch however like Dorking last week wasn’t the greatest, finding a few more of them are not standing up to the rigours of top level non-league football, the Bees however have nearly completed the away leg of 3G pitches for the season.
