Nick Sandamas sees the Bees win big against Bristol Rovers

The main stand at The Hive Stadium, home of Barnet FC — The Hive (Credit – Katie Chan, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Barnet 4 Bristol Rovers 0

Barnet ended a run of five successive draws by beating an out of form Bristol Rovers side under The Hive lights with four different goalscorers on the scoresheet.

Anthony Hartigan made a rare start and took the captain’s armband, replacing Callum Stead who dropped to the bench and it was The Gas who had the first sniff on goal when Luke Thomas made space but could only fire his shot over the bar.

Then, fourteen minutes in, the Bees went in front when fine play from a corner found Ryan Glover whose pinpoint cross towards the far post was finished by the head of Adam Senior to score his fifth goal of the season.

A few minutes later, a wayward pass in his own half by Kane Smith was intercepted by Thomas but, as with his previous chance, he fired over.

Another chance fell to Rovers’ Fabi Cavegn, who got in ahead of Nik Taveres, but his strike on goal was expertly kept out by keeper Ciaran Slicker.

Then, right on the half hour, the Bees stretched their lead when a persistent build up ended with Nmandi Ofoborh who took aim and blasted the ball into the net past keeper Luke Southwood.

The Pirates made a couple of changes at half time but it was the Bees who had the first opportunity after the break with Glover’s shot from close range taking a deflection and going behind for a corner.

Slicker had to be alert before the hour, brilliantly tipping over a Shaq Forde cross after he turned and shot towards goal.

With twelve minutes of normal time left, the Bees were awarded a spot kick when Kamil Conteh brought down sub Ollie Hawkins and Mark Shelton (who’d missed his previous spot kick) calmly slotted home to give his side a three goal cushion and a sense of game over.

Another positive sight for home supporters was the return of injured on-loan striker Joe Hugill who came on with ten minutes remaining for his first taste of action since mid August. And, with a minute to go, Stead put the icing on the cake with the fourth goal (set up by Ofoborh) a low drilled effort past Southwood.

A good night’s work for the Bees and more importantly their first league win since mid October. The three points haul them up into the top half, just two points off the final play-off spot in a contested table as they head to Chesterfield on Saturday.

Team: Slicker, Collinge, Tavares, Senior, Smith, Glover (Hugill 81) Shelton (Winterburn 81), Hartigan (Stead 60), Ofoborh, Assombalonga (Browne 70), Kanu (Hawkins 70)

Subs not used: Evans, Kensdale

Attendance 2157 (414 away fans)

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