Barnet gained their first league point of the season with a much improved performance drawing 1-1 against Bristol Rovers at Underhill on Tuesday night. Head Coach, Mark Robson made four changes from last weekend’s 3-0 defeat at Port Vale; Barry Fuller replacing Freddie Warren at right back, Jack Saville coming in for Clovis Kamdjo in the centre of defence and Mark Byrne and Curtis Weston, making his full Bees’ debut, in a completely new central midfield pairing in place of Olly Lee and Ahmed Abdulla.
And Barnet looked a much livelier and sharper outfit for it and began the match in a much more robust style, not letting the visitors settle into the game at all. The Bees took a deserved lead after just 9 minutes with a superb goal from Ricky HOLMES. The popular Bees’ striker collected the ball just inside his own half and broke down the left before slotting in a fine angled shot past former Barnet keeper, Sam Walker to but Barnet in front.
Soon after, Walker was busy having to parry a long range effort from Anthony Edgar as Barnet dominated the first half hour or so of the opening half with both full backs, Barry Fuller and Jordan Brown both looking particularly impressive and Byrne and Weston giving the midfield a much sharper look. Ricky Holmes too looked up for things and looked much more robust than he sometimes has in the past when he seemed to be brushed off the ball too easily.
However, following a mistake by Edgar on the left midfield, Rovers began to look dangerous in the last 15 minutes or so of the half and nearly equalised when a fine shot by Clarkson which looked destined for the far corner of the net brought an excellent save from Liam O’Brien. That fine save preserved the Bees’ first half lead.
HT: Bees 1 Pirates 0
The visitors came out with a renewed sense of purpose after the break and Barnet came under a lot of pressure and had good reason to thank Liam O’Brien for keeping Rovers at bay . A mix up on the right between Fuller and Byrne lead to Elliot Richards bringing out another fine save by O’Brien who pushed the Bristol striker’s shot away for a corner. But from the corner, Matt Harrold out jumped the Bees’ defenders to comfortably head home to bring the scores level.
Following the goal, the visitors took control of the game and threatened to over run the Bees’ defence and Barnet had Liam O’Brien to be thankful for as the former Portsmouth keeper gave a sparkling display in the home goal.
Jake Hyde replaced Ricky Holmes with about 20 minutes or so, which seemed an odd substitution as Holmes had been Barnet’s most dangerous striker until then, but it appeared that he may have received a knock. Hyde certainly added some strength to the Bees attack and held up the ball well and generally playing the role of target striker. Jon Nurse had a disappointing display up front. On the left hand side of midfield, Anthony Edgar had a frustrating night too, but as the game wore on he did brighten up somewhat getting some success against the Rovers’ defenders.
With less than 10 minutes remaining, Mark Byrne almost grabbed a winner for the Bees with a wickedly curling shot from long range that only just crept wide of Sam Walker’s right hand post and would have been an early contender for goal of the season. Barnet began to wrestle control of the game as the match wore on and put more pressure on the visiting goal with lanky youth tea striker, George Sykes making his debut in the last few minutes of time added on as Barnet strove for a late winner, but the home side had to be satisfied with a point, which, all in all, was probably a fair result and which, without O’Brien’s heroics in goal, could have been a defeat.
However, the Bees can be fairly pleased with a much brighter performance that leads to a certain amount of optimism for Saturday’s home match against newly promoted, York City.
Barnet Man of the Match: Liam O'Brien
FT: Bees 1 Pirates 1
Barnet: O’Brien; Fuller, Fortune, Saville, Brown; Yiadom (Lee 86), Byrne (Sykes 90), Weston, Edgar; Nurse, Holmes (Hyde 69).
Subs Not Used: Cowler, Kamdjo, Abdulla, Warren.
Att: 1794
