Barnet ended a run of three consecutive defeats with a 1-0 home win over third placed AlfretonTown which, ultimately, turned out to be a comfortable victory for the Bees.
Nick Jupp made his first competitive start for the Bees and Dani Lopez was playing his last game of his current loan spell. Barnet were without Keanu Marsh-Brown who had picked up an injury at Luton.
After a pretty dire first half hour when neither side looked like play off contenders, barnet began to pick the pace up a little and went ahead on 40 minutes in spectacular fashion when LOPEZ worked some space for himself just outside the penalty area and sent a stunning curling shot into the top of the net past a helpless Worsnop to put the Bees 1-0 up.
HT: Bees 1 Alfreton 0
Barnet were a much different proposition in the second half and they were far better going forward and created a number of chances which, unfortunately, they proceeded to throw away. Luisma played a gorgeous through ball for Jake Hyde to run onto but with plenty of time he opted to chip the keeper first time and placed the ball wide of an empty goal. Later, Luisma himself was played into space just inside the penalty area but seemed to take his eye off the ball and the chance disappeared.
Worsnop made a couple of good saves later on to prevent the Bees from finishing off the game, but fortunately, Alfreton rarely tested the Bees’ defence and Jupp did not have a save to make the whole game. After the match, the Alfreton boss, Nicky Law, said that he thought a draw would have been a fair result, but it was hard to see how he came to that conclusion as, realistically, Barnet should have won at least 3-0 considering how many openings they created in the 2nd half. On of the problems was the poor level of crossing throughout the game, from both sides. It was also difficult to see how Alfreton had managed to get to 3rd place on this display, though, to be fair, it may have just been an off day. The win took the Bees back up the table to 6th place, only outside the play offs on the number of goals scored as they are level on points and goal difference with AFC Halifax.
FT: Bees 1 AlfretonTown 0
Barnet Mad Bees’ Man of the Match: David Stephens
Barnet: Jupp; Yiadom , Stephens, Saville, Johnson; Cadogan (Addullah 95), Byrne, Luisma (Vilhete 95), Weston; Hyde, Lopez (Crawford 86).
Subs not used: Barnes, Acheampong.
Att: 1400