Pre-Season Friendly
21 July 2004

By Josh Grant

Barnet got their pre-season campaign back on track on Wednesday night, with a well deserved win against Ipswich town.

The Barnet team contained many of the faces who are expected to be down on the team sheet come the opening day of the season. This was arguably Fairclough's starting eleven bar perhaps trailist Dwaine Lee appearing in the center of midfield with new signing Ritchie Graham, who scored in the infamous defeat three days ago to Arsenal, on the left.

I say Ipswich Town but I use the term loosely as the team against that arrived at the Underhill contained few of the stars that graced last year's playoffs. The most notable names of the Ipswich team were ex- Sheffield Wednesday striker Shefki Kuqi and midfielder Georges Santos, who was the main star of the show in a frantic opening ten minutes as he went down, injured and was later replaced.

However, briefly after the short wait Ipswich took the lead. A hopeful cross-field ball was poorly dealt with by King, his poor header resulting in a cross to the back post. Kuqi controlled well on his chest to get past Hendon and smartly slotted the ball home from the left of the 6 yard box. The only other Ipswich chance of great merit came 10 minutes later as Kuqi rather bizarrely blocked Yakabu's attempted clearance on the edge of the area. The ball span viciously towards the goal, but only the paint on Shane Gore's goalpost denied Ipswich from expanding their lead.

Barnet seemed to strengthen from that point onwards as they tried to exert some authority on the Ipswich fledge lings after a somewhat end to end opening 20 minutes. The inspiration for this came from Grazioli as he skipped past three defenders as if it was the beginning of last season all over again. Out of thin air he seemed to create space for himself and finally he got through to a shooting position after some nimble footwork, where he didn't disappoint, firing down into the bottom left corner.

Grazioli could have doubled his tally soon after, as transfer listed by request Ben Stevens slipped the ball forward through towards Grazioli who had peeled off to the right cleverly, but last seasons top scorer could only find the Price's palms after a quick bust of pace.

Indeed he had an almost identical effort minutes later. Barnet broke quickly from substitute Manning's tame shot from the edge of the area after Lee had lost possession. Grazioli was again put through on the right showing no signs of age sprinting through to strike the ball on the half volley, but it whizzed past the post.

It became a hat-trick of near misses soon after, a cross field drive from Hendon tried to find Grazioli's excellent movement off the defender's shoulder, but instead the defender Collins managed to head the ball over the advancing Price in a mix up. Luckily for Collins, despite the endeavours of Grazioli he managed to head the ball off the line at the price of a corner.

However the signs seemed ominous and Barnet's steady grip on the game tightened 5 minutes before half time as Liam Hatch scored what turned out to be the winner. The physical Lee who it seems so often has the right ideas, but lacks the match practice or talent to pull them off, started off the move with a hard tackle that lead to Hatch's first goal in pre-season. Lee released Graham on the left who was electric all evening, and he weighted a perfect pass for the eager Hatch to run onto.

A smooth switch onto his left dazzled the Ipswich center-half and he cooling finished from close rang with a left foot finish - one for the record. Hatch seemed lively as usual but his first touch and left foot have obviously been areas of concern for Fairclough judging by their excellent progress since last season.

Second Half

Much the same team came out in front of the Barnet faithful for the second half, but Danny Maddix came on for Chris Plummer at the back and Ricky Millard for Shane Gore in goal as Barnet looked to start the second half as they had finished the first. Barnet settled back into a steady rhythm, but were made to wait until the 55th minute to taste a true chance when Stevens should have done better from a Grazioli cross, which he blazed over the bar.

Barnet continued to create the better chances with the new signing Bailey on the pitch, showing some mature passing skills to seize control of the match which was seemingly now heading for a Barnet victory. Then fell probably the best chance of the match. Some neat touches by the Ipswich YTS boys, lead to the ball finally being squared to Stuart Boardley, who was thwarted by a fine Millard stop.

That was the end of the Ipswich threat, but there was still time for Simon King to blast a 25 yard shot just over the bar late on, and for arguably the best move of the game. Simon Clist, a second half substitute found Graham out on the right where he had moved late on, Graham then cleverly put in the other substitute Lee Roache, only for his neat finish to be ruled out for offside.

The performance was a superb performance despite Ipswich's relatively young side, and it is clear from this excellent display by Graham that he will certainly be one to watch the season adding some much needed flair to the Barnet midfield. Nicky Bailey also showed he knows the right passes to make and could make a great impact this season. The manager Paul Fairclough will have been impressed to see the Barnet players' efforts, especially the hustling mentality when not in possession of the ball.

Teams

Barnet

Gore (Millard 45); Hendon, Plummer (Maddix 45), Yakubu, King; Graham, Lopez (Bailey 57), Strevens (Clist 66), Lee; Grazioli (Roache 78), Hatch.

Ipswich

Price, Hogg, Barron, Patten (Sobers 61), Collins, Murray, Flack (Garvan 61), Santos (Manning 8), Kuqi, Knights (Guentchev 76), Craig (Boardley 53).

Other Reports

RAS guide to Barnet FC
Independent Ipswich Town Website
Barnet Times

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

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