FA Cup 4th Qualifying Round
Saturday 26th October 3.00pm

By Daniel Fox

An utterly disgraceful performance from Barnet saw Tiverton pull off a shock, but well deserved 2-0 victory at Underhill against a team of so-called professionals.

Barnet were simply outplayed by their understudy's with the Bees lacking fight, pride and passion. Basically with the exception of Junior Agogo, Danny Naisbitt and John Doolan the whole team was a complete disgrace. Today's performance has to be worse than what was witnessed under the likes of Tony Cottee and John Still and a fairer reflection would have been about 5-0.

There was a return for Ben Strevens and the first start of the season for Stuart Niven, as Neil Midgley and Jason Soloman both dropped down to the bench.

Indecisive

The game started quietly as an indecisive Barnet team created very little as the inability to shoot made the crowd very restless, acting as the catalyst for Tiverton to get more and more into the game. Barnet's main chance of the half saw Ben Strevens latch onto Junior Agogo's through ball, only to see Steve Peters make a timely interception. The main talking point in the first 30 minutes was the numerous penalty appeals from both sides that all go rejected.

Tiverton were growing in confidence and should have taken the lead through Richard Pears, but he blasted over from close range after connecting with James Mudge's right wing cross.

Goal

Mudge then deservedly put Tiverton ahead minutes later. On the break he saw his initial shot blocked but Pears miss hit fell straight back into his path for him to slot past Danny Naisbitt.

Second Half

The second half did get better but once Tiverton survived the initial onslaught they doubled their lead and ran out comfortable winners.

Jason Soloman started the second half but had an absolute nightmare after replacing the out of sorts Yakabu.

Thunderbolt

Junior Agogo was unlucky to see his 20-yard thunderbolt parried by keeper Steve Collis after picking up the ball from Ben Strevens. Greg Heald then thought that he'd equalized but his bullet header from Gower's corner was blocked on the line and unfortunately Pluck was unable to connect to the rebound.

Tiverton nearly doubled their lead, yet again on the counter but Naisbitt did well to get down and parry James Mudge's attempt, after holding off Lee Pluck.

Second Goal

Mudge made no mistakes minutes later, again easily disposing of Pluck and the impressive Tiverton front man cooly slotted past Naisbitt.

Frazer Toms and Neil Midgley came on in the later stages but Barnet had ran out of ideas long before Tiverton's second and Mark Gower's free kick, blasted high and wide from the edge of the box summed up the dismal afternoon.

Shocking

The Bees were shocking and they had to rely on Danny Naisbitt to keep the scoreline remotely respectable. It looks like a complacency problem but the players must learn that with putting in performances like that they wont be snapped up by bigger clubs and inevitably Barnet wont even be able to give them away.

I can't wait to read Dennis Signy's next article, although I doubt even he will be able to find any plus points from that performance!

Squad

Naisbitt, Pope (Midgley), Yakubu (Soloman), Heald, Pluck, Niven (Toms), Doolan, Purser, Gower, Strevens, Agogo

Unused subs - Harrison, Oshitola

Ed's note - This will be the last report from Foxy as is his going abroad to work for a while. I would just like to say thanks for his reports and wish him best wishes for his trip. It's a shame that his last report was on such a piss-poor game, where one of the only shots on target was from Danny Naisbitt. Although it was quite funny when the draw was made for the first round and Barnet were read out as playing Crawley Town. The Tivvy fans in the Durham Suite looked quite shocked! I would also like to take this opportunity to wish Tiverton Town good luck in the rest of their cup run.

Thanks are also due to Reckless and John C for arranging the spectacular pre-match curry.