Nationwide Conference
Saturday 14 December 3.00pm

By Ian Pletcher

Barnet slipped to another disappointing defeat at the Bucks Head ground despite leading for much of the game and seeing their opponents reduced to ten men for the majority of the second half.

Barnet went into the game making two changes from the team narrowly beaten at Nuneaton with Jason Soloman coming for Ben Strevens and Michael Price taking the place of Fraser Toms on the left handside of midfield. The resulting re-organisation saw Lee Pluck at right back with Soloman lining up at centre back along side Greg Heald.

The Bees started the game with plenty of possesion and were soon putting the Telford defence under pressure. However, the quality of the final ball into the box was poor and the Telford defence dealt with this early pressure without too much trouble. The first real chance of the game fell to Telford, when central defender Brown was left with a free header from a corner. his effort looked bound for the net, but fortunately for the Bees the ball struck one of his own teammates and spun over the bar.

Barnet made the most of this slice of luck by taking the lead moments later, although the goal was down to a dreadful mistake by Paul Edwards in the Telford goal. Mark Gower curled a long free kick into the box and perhaps surprisingly, everyone missed it. Edwards went down to collect the lose ball, but fumbled it and it some how slipped under his body and trickled into the net.

For the remainder of the half the Bees enjoyed the better of the game without really creating any clear cut chances although Doolan and Agogo both saw long range efforts go close. Barnet also won a number of free kicks around the edge of the area as Telford struggled to come to terms with the trickery of Agogo, Purser and Gower. However, none of them game to anything although three Telford players collected yellow cards. In truth much of the play was thoroughly scrappy and the teams returned to the dressing rooms knowing that neither had played well.

Second half

The second half saw Telford come out looking much sharper and they quickly had Barnet under considerable pressure. Their passing improved which resulted in a couple of chances which were wasted. Barnet's play was getting more and more scrappy, but they were mostly defending reasonably comfortably.

Just before the hour mark the Bees fans behind the Telford goal were furious as the referee failed to point at the spot after a Telford defender used a hand to flick a low cross away from the lurking Wayne Purser. The referee was probably unsighted but how his assistant failed to see the hand is a complete mystery.

Moments later Telford were reduced to ten men when their captain Palmer caught Price with a late tackle and was shown his second yellow card. If anything the game became even more scrappy and it began to look as if Barnet might hang on for a welcome three points. Wayne Purser, who in all honesty had looked off the pace all afternoon was replace with Fraser Toms.

Then with fifteen minutes left it all went wrong for the Bees. Telford's equaliser came about when Naisbett could only parry a shot from a narrow angle across the six yard box. The ball fell to Brown who saw hist first effort well blocked by Yakabu, but the ball ran lose again and Brown was able to tap the ball in at the second attempt.

Telford were suddenly full of confidence and despite being a man down always looked the more likely to get a winner. With nine minutes left Barnet presented Telford with a winner. Doolan miscontrolled a ball on the edge of the area when he had plenty of time to clear and the ball ran through to Telford's Moore who was left with the simple task of slotting the ball past Naisbett. It was a dreadful error from a player who for the rest of the game was probably Barnet's best player.

Oshitola was immediately brought on for Price in an attempt to retrieve the game, but the closest Barnet came was two headers from Agogo. First after a corner was half cleared Doolan headed the ball back into the box, Heald headed the ball on for Agogo the head straight at Edwards in the Telford goals. In their next attack Agogo glanced a header wide from a Gower cross, both efforts being little more than half chances.

Overall this was a scappy game that was a poor advert for Conference football. Barnet had the better of the possesion for a large part of the game, but on this occasion failed to create a single good chance while at the other end Telford did manage to carve out four of five reasonable chances. On these grounds alone the Bees can have few complaints, although it might have been a very different result had Barnet got the penalty they should have had just before the hour mark.

Bookings

Telford United

Steve Palmer dismissed for second bookable offence (63)

Gary Fitzpatrick booked for unsporting behaviour (84)
Grant Brown booked for unsporting behaviour (52)
Steve Palmer booked for unsporting behaviour (34)
Martin Barlow booked for unsporting behaviour (20)

Barnet

No bookings

Teams

Telford United

Edwards, Davies, Brown, Foran, Hanmer, Fitzpatrick, Palmer, Barlow, Smith, Moore, Brown

Unused subs: Wooliscroft, Jobling, King, Sayer, Jones

Barnet

Naisbitt, Soloman, Pluck, Heald, Price (Oshitola 83), Gower, Yakabu, Doolan, Flynn, Agogo, Purser (Toms 66)

Unused subs: Millard, Baimass, Smith