Nick Sandamas sees Barnet triumph against Barrow

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 3 Barrow 2

Barnet secured a hard fought victory against relegation threatened Barrow in their first ever home league meeting to firmly ramp up the pressure on Chesterfield and Grimsby in their bid for a play-off spot.

Callum Stead’s goal seven minutes from the end of normal time meant the Bees secured their fourth win in the last five games and will head to automatic promotion chasers Notts County next Saturday in with a chance of extending their season beyond the final three games.

Idris Kanu was back in the starting line up in place of Joe Kizzi who was on the bench. Nmandi Ofoborh continued to captain the side in place the regular skipper Danny Collinge, who was serving the second of a three match ban for his sending off in the draw against Bromley on Good Friday.

With the game only three minutes old, the Cumbrians shocked the Bees by taking the lead. A ball found Josh Gordon whose shot from just outside the box beat the dive of Cieran Slicker.

The men in black and amber then found it hard to break down a resolute Bluebirds outfit who were determined to frustrate them at all costs, a Ryan Glover shot past the post midway through the half their only worthwhile chance.

In fact, it was Gordon who almost increased the strugglers’ lead just past the half hour mark. Danny Rose split the home defence to set him up with a fine ball across the six yard box but the goalscorer’s shot went wide.

That was a let off for the Bees and, with the half time whistle just seconds away, a stroke of luck enabled them to draw level.

Kanu put a cross inside the six yard box and Mark Shelton shot towards goal with the final touch going in via Kabongo Tshimanga’s heel.

Then eight minutes into the second half, Shelton scored his and his side’s second. Stead found the number 19 on his own in the area and he placed his shot past Bluebirds keeper Wyll Stanway to net his eighth goal of the season.

On the hour mark, the Bees made a couple of changes with Daniel Jaiyesimi and Kane Smith entering the fray in place of Phillip Chinedu and Kanu.

And, just a few minutes after those changes, they created an opportunity but Glover backpedalling headed over.

Kabongo Tshimanga had a great chance to give the Bees some daylight soon after but he was denied a tenth Bees goal by a last ditch deflection sending the ball onto the post and behind for a corner.

This could have been a crucial miss because, on 73 minutes, a piece of magic of Rakeem Harper drew the Bluebirds level. He was somehow allowed a free run on goal from the half way line before placing a low shot wide of Slicker.

However that goal wouldn’t knock the Bees off their stride and, with six minutes of normal time to go, they netted the winning goal.

A right wing cross by Jaiyesimi found Stead in the danger zone and he rose to head the ball into the net.

The hard fought win made it four wins in the last five to put Barnet within two points of the play-off positions with three games remaining and Notts County first up.

Team: Slicker, Senior, Tavares, Chinedu (Smith 62) Crichlow, Glover (Winterburn 86) Ofoborh, Shelton, Stead, Tshimanga (Kizzi 90+3) Kanu (Jaiyesimi 62)

Subs not used: Evans, Hawkins, Slaw

Attendance 2075 (177 away fans)

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