Nick Sandamas sees Barnet sneak a late cup victory over Cambridge

Barnet FC's ground The Hive pictured from the underground — The Hive, Barnet FC: fleeting glimpse of the pitch from the underground by Christopher Hilton, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Barnet 3 Cambridge United 2

Emanuel Osadebe struck late on to win the game for the Bees and keep alive their hopes of qualification for the knockout stage of the Vertu Trophy.

There was a debut given to new signing 32-year-old striker Brett Assombalonga, who has numbered Peterborough, Middlesbrough and Nottingham Forest amongst his former clubs and was recently playing in Turkey.

He was one of a number of changes made by both teams compared to their last league games and, in just the second minute, the Bees hit the front when a header by Liam Bennett in his own half was latched onto by the running Lee Ndlovu who calmly slotted the ball low into the net past U’s keeper Ben Hughes.

The U’s drew level on 20 minutes when a free kick from James Brophy on the left was headed on by Mamadou Obe straight at the head of the unfortunate Bees player Oli Hawkins who inadvertently diverted the ball into his own net.

And, on 33 minutes, the U’s turnaround was complete when a free kick given after Brophy was brought down on the edge of the box presented Ben Knight with the opportunity to aim a shot at goal. He stepped up and put his side in front with a curler which took a deflection before nestling into the net.

They visitors then had a great chance to score a third goal minutes later but, to the relief of the Bees, Ellis Kachunga’s shot struck the post.

There was a moment right on the stroke of half time when Ndlovu was seemingly brought down by Hughes as he attempted to take the ball around him but the referee ignored the appeals, leaving the U’s to go in at half time with their slender lead.

The restart saw Romany Crichlow come on in defence in place of Ndlovu, meaning Hawkins switched from centre half to partner Assombalonga in attack.

The Bees came up trumps with the equaliser on 72 minutes when Crichlow played a sweet ball to Assombalonga and he fired the ball into the net for a debut goal.

Kachunga had half a chance to put the U’s back ahead soon after but his weak header was easy for keeper Ciaran Slicker.

With the board going up for two minutes of stoppage time, and both teams preparing for penalties, up stepped Emanuel Osadebe to clinch the winner.

Bright Siaw won the ball in midfield, it somehow fell to Assombalonga who played a pass to Osadebe who ran and struck the ball towards the inside of the post and into the net for the winning goal.

With this being the Bees’ final group match they will be anxiously waiting over the next few weeks to see if they have made it to the knockout stage.

It’s back to league action this Saturday with the long trip to Barrow.

Team: Slicker, Smith, Kensdale, Hawkins, Galvin, Adeniran (Siaw 42), Osadebe, Winterburn, Shelton, Ndlovu (Crichlow 46) Assombalonga

Subs not used: Wright, Matejko, Liwala-Lukizalamo, Correa-Colorado

Attendance 692 (167 away fans)

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