Nationwide Conference
17 April 2004

By Jack Foord

Barnet secured a point at Northwich with a Liam Hatch equalising goal for the second time in two games, which puts the Bees three points ahead of Exeter in the battle for a play off spot.

As the Bees went into this crucial game against Northwich Victoria, Paul Fairclough made one change, bringing on Ben Strevens - who has an injured toe - for Liam Hatch, who was fantastic on Monday against Burton Albion.

The Bees needed all three points if they were going to progress into the play-offs, and didn't get into the game as quickly as the already relegated Northwich, who began to keep possession pretty easily - and had a couple of long range efforts, but nothing Gore couldn't handle with.

Barnet did begin to win the ball and keep the ball very well but couldn't get that breakthrough they needed. They had their first run at the defence when Liam Hatch ran down the wing, crossed near, but Rooney - the only person in there - couldn't direct the ball goalwards.

This didn't continue and as Northwich kept pressuring they finally won a penalty after Plummer was adjudged to have brought down their forward. It was converted to make the score line 1-0.

Then, to make it worse, Grazioli (who was doubtful before the game) went off with an ankle injury for the on-loan signing Greg Pearson, just before half time.

Second Half

The Bees came out into the second half all up for it and made one change, bringing Tony Taggart on for Ismail Yakubu on the left hand side of midfield.

Barnet got straight into the game trying to get something out of it and had a few chances in the first ten minutes with Taggart shooting wide and Pearson shooting straight into the goalkeeper's arms.

With Liam Hatch working really hard the Bees got into the game and began to control bits of it, keeping possession and a few long-range efforts from Gamble and Hatch.

Moments later Matt Redmile connected with Gamble's corner, but it sailed just over the bar. He then connected with Clist's corner as well - who came on for Taggart - but that was wide of the mark.

Barnet kept on pressuring hard and finally got a goal from Liam Hatch who powerfully headed the ball into the back of the net sending the travelling Bees fans mad behind the goal.

With five minutes of the game remaining the Bees tried harder to get a winning goal, with attempts from defenders Hendon, King and Rooney but it didn't come so it ended 1-1.

It was in fact a good result as Exeter lost 2-0 to Tamworth and Aldershot lost as well so Barnet are three points in front of Exeter in fifth place. With a win at Leigh the Bees will secure a play-off place.

Bookings

Barnet

No Bookings

Northwich

No Bookings

Referee: Hewitt, R

Teams

Barnet

S.Gore, M.Redmile, S.King, C.Plummer, I.Hendon, M.Rooney, J.Gamble, I.Yakabu (T.Taggart 46, S.Clist 77), G.Lopez, L.Hatch, G.Grazioli (G.Pearson 44)

Unused substitutes: D.Maddix, R.Millard

Northwich

B.Connett, K.Charnock, L.Woodyatt, P.McGuire, S.Came, C.Royle, P.Brazier, M.Foran, G.Tolley (B.Briscoe 79, R.Norris 85), M.Devlin, S.Garvey

Unused substitutes: C.Thompson, S.Teale, S.Nicholas

Other Reports

Nationwide Conference

If you know of any other reports please email me the link on info@bfcsa.net

I check unofficial sites that we link to when putting these reports up and link to the equivalent report if there is one (so long as it is original). Please see our links page if you want to exchange links.

I am no longer linking to Barnet's official site's match reports. Please see here for more information.

Want to write Match Reports?

If you are interested in writing match reports for bfcsa.net then click here for more information.