Bees comprehensively beaten

Nick Sandamas sees promotion-chasing Barnet fall short at home to Swindon

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 1 Swindon Town 3

The Bees suffered a league defeat for the first time this season against a Swindon Town side who, prior to kick off, had not scored an away league goal in their League Two entire campaign.

The game was effectively decided in the first half thanks to a goal inside seven minutes from Mitch Clark and a quickfire brace later in the half from their top scorer Aaron Drinan.

It was the Bees’ first league loss since last March (a total of 18 games) but, despite a rare off night, they still remain in the automatic promotion slots, trailing leaders Salford City by four points, with two games in hand.

Missing a number of players through injury and suspension, Dean Brennan was only able to name five subs on the bench which also included goalkeeper Anthony Haralambous.

Hoping to make it five league wins in a row, it couldn’t have started worse for the Bees, going behind for the third successive game.

A Barnet short corner by Charlie Lakin was played across and cleared to the feet of Clark in his own half and, with most of the home players in the opposition half, the number two was given the freedom to run the full length of the field before firing low into the bottom corner past Matt Cox in the Bees’ goal.

Barnet came firing back soon after with Danny Collinge coming close with a header which went over, before an Osain Gallagher shot was deflected into the path of Lakin but the midfielder’s quick shot went wide of the far post.

Then, come the half hour, there was an unbelievable spell of goalkeeping by Robins’ much travelled goalkeeper Connor Ripley who produced an outstanding array of saves in the space of a few minutes to keep the hosts at bay and the visitors’ slender lead intact.

First he denied Kabongo Tshimanga from close range, turning the ball behind for a corner.

There then followed a triple save, including one which he deflected onto the bar, prompting congratulations from his team mates and mass of travelling supporters behind the goal.

This proved to be a vital moment in the game as two quickfire goals soon after virtually handed the points to the Wiltshire side.

Another counter led to the second goal on 36 minutes when Matt Virtue burst onto the right wing and whipped the ball across the six-yard box to find skipper Drinan who got ahead of his marker to slide the ball into the net. Then, before long, the Robins had a third when Collinge’s attempted pass to a teammate was intercepted by Jack Thompson who played a pass to Drinan to run onto before shooting pass Cox for the his eighth strike of the season.

With the game now beyond the Bees, it was a case of pride for the rest of the game, along with the faint hope that an early second half goal might spark a comeback. However, within minutes of the restart it was the Robins who came close to scoring their fourth goal of the evening.

Cox was alert to deny both Sam Inwood and then Jon Snowdon with decent saves, standing tall on both occasions.

With the three points secured, the Robins made an array of substitutions and the Bees did likewise with Daniola Ajayi, Tom Knowles and Jake Reeves entering the action.

Ajayi did make some good runs to try to set up his team mates but the Robins defence stood firm until the 90th minute when Ripley was finally beaten.

Knowles and Lakin combined to set up top scorer Tshimanga who finished from close range.

A mere consolation from a Bees side hit by injuries, totally outrun and beaten by a side who were simply better on the night with the promotion chasers having no answer to the Robins’ quickfire counter attacks.

Brennan will need to rally his troops for the visit of Micky Mellon’s struggling Oldham Athletic side this coming Saturday.

Team: Cox, Senior, Collinge, Tavares (Knowles 63) Williams, Gallagher (Ajayi 67) Comley, Ofoborh (Reeves 63) Lakin, Tshimanga, Kanu (Kenlock 82)

Sub not used: Haramlambous

Attendance 2200 (509 away fans)

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