Barnet back to winning ways

Nick Sandamas sees the Bees beat York City to maintain their promotion challenge

View across the pitch at The Hive — Katie Chan, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Barnet 3 York City 1

Barnet moved to within three points of leaders Salford City with a game in hand after coming from behind to beat ten man promotion rivals York City in front of an impressive midweek crowd of over 3000 at The Hive on Tuesday.

Following the draw with Oldham Athletic last weekend, Dean Brennan made three changes to his starting eleven giving a first league start to Jack Maskell and restoring defenders Nik Taveres and Romany Crichlow in a 4-4-2 formation.

Zac Williams, Nmamdi Ofoborh and Damiola Ajayi were the ones to make way.

And it was the fifth placed Ministermen who started the brighter.

On seven minutes a run by Joe Felix ended with a shot from Joe Grey which was turned around the post by Matt Cox in the Barnet goal.

And just 60 seconds later Cox was picking the ball out of the net when Ollie Banks’s right sided cross found Mark Kitching in acres of space to head the ball into the net. To the relief of Bees’ fan, it was chalked off for offside.

The visitors continued to ask questions of the home defence and Alex Hunt was the next to try his luck but his right-footed low drive from the edge of the box following Hiram Boteng’s pass fizzed past the post.

Then, at the midway point, another Ministermen cross into the box found their top scorer Ollie Pearce but Cox did brilliantly to get down low to divert the ball with his hand and it went behind for a corner.

In between all this, there was an altercation between one of the York first team coaches and Brennan which then saw the two come together. It resulted in both being booked.

Back on the pitch and York’s pressure finally paid off when they took the lead on 37 minutes. Arthur Reed’s curler went into the net to give his side a well deserved lead.

However they only had three minutes to enjoy the lead because the Bees restored parity.

An Adam Senior long throw caused havoc in the six yard box, the ball eventually falling to star man Kabongo Tshimanga who turned smartly to net from close range for his seventh goal in the last six games.

Then, early in the second half, Tshimanga had two great chances to put his side ahead but on both occasions was thwarted by City’s keeper Alfie McNally.

On 52 minutes, City found themselves a man light when Boateng was given a second yellow by the card happy referee for trying to take a free kick too quickly. The left the Bees with a man advantage and soon after they made a couple of changes with Knowles and Ofoborh coming on later followed just past the hour by Kane Smith and Jake Reeves.

Knowles had a sight of goal but McNally pushed the effort over the bar from close range.

Then, on 79 minutes, a moment of magic from Reeves saw the Bees go in front for the first time on the night.

Receiving the ball on the edge of the area, he produced a sweet half volley to net his second goal in a Bees shirt and then, with three minutes of normal time left on the clock, a mazy run by Ajayi culminated in his shot coming off the crossbar then off McNally for an own goal. The Bees’ third making it game, set and match.

The drama wasn’t over yet as, after the full time whistle had blown, the card happy referee gave City manager Scott Lindsey a red card.

It’s off to Crewe next for the Bees today with the Cheshire side hoping to put their 5-1 thumping by Chesterfield last weekend behind them.

Team: Cox, Senior (Smith 63) Collinge, Tavares, Crichlow, Gallagher, Comley (Reeves 63) Lakin, Maskell (Knowles 55) Tshimanga (Ajayi 82) Kanu (Ofoborh 55)

Subs not used: Haramlambous, Williams

Attendance. 3100 (1090 away fans)

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