Barnet 3 Accrington Stanley 0

Last Updated : 20-Nov-2004 by

An assured Barnet side maintained their position at the top of the Nationwide Conference table with a comfortable 3-0 victory over Accrington Stanley.

Bees manager Paul Fairclough described last week's 2-1 defeat against Bath City in the FA Cup first round as a "wake up call" for his players. The team responded with a fine performance and Simon King was outstanding.

Before kick-off a multi-cultural group of local school children took to the pitch to promote the "Kick It Out" anti-racism campaign - a timely appearance after Wednesday's events in Madrid.

The home team were without midfielder Nicky Bailey because of a knee injury. Scott Tynan continued to deputise in goal for Shane Gore.

Accrington started with Paul Crichton, newly signed from Leigh RMI, in goal. The vastly experienced 36-year-old has made over 400 league appearances but was unable to keep out the Barnet attack.

The Bees started brightly and their crisp passing football paid dividends in the 21st minute.

King cut in from the left 20 yards out and cracked a low shot into the net. Captain Ian Hendon nearly extended the lead shortly afterwards, his left-foot shot curling inches past the post.

Accrington struggled to get into the game and were 2-0 down just before the hour as Richard Graham was played in on the left and put a measured drive past Crichton.

The scoring was completed five minutes from time with a defensive mix-up resulting in a Mike Flynn own goal.