Halifax Town v Barnet
21.8.04 3pm
By Jeffrey Benge
Score: Halifax 2 Barnet 3
Goals: Halifax: Howell (25) Monington (35)
Barnet: Haslam, o.g. (50), Hatch (68), Grazioli (69)
Attendance: 1382
Teams:
Halifax.T: Dunbavin, Doughty, Monington, Munroe, Ingram, Foster, Howell, Haslam, Willis (Hockenhull 54), Midgley (Toulson 74), Sugden (Killeen 74).
Subs Not Used: Mallon, Quinn.
Barnet: Gore, Clist, King, Plummer, Hendon, Graham, Lee, Sinclair (Bailey 90), Strevens (Lopez 90), Hatch, Grazioli.
Subs Not Used: Millard, Dobson, Roache.
With Ismail Yakabu still not fully fit, Barnet fielded the same starting line-up as against Farnborough in midweek, with one change on the bench; former Crystal Palace midfielder, Craig Dobson, replacing Protec youngster, Daniel Gwyther. This meant that Simon King continued in his role at centre back with Simon Clist filling in on the left side.
Barnet had the better of the first 20 minutes with Richie Graham going close when he hit the side netting when he might have done better. Later, Graham, finding a lot of space on the left, crossed well only for Liam Hatch to get under his cross and head badly over the top.
Having dominated the early stages, Barnet had a slack five minutes and paid for it when poor play by Ben Strevens, lead to Halifax midfielder, Dean Howell, picking the ball up in midfield, driving through an off-balance Barnet midfield, rounding Shane Gore and scoring with a firm shot into an empty net for a very well taken goal.
Barnet were a bit unlucky with a possible penalty award ignored following a handball in the area, but further slack play lead to them falling further behind. On 35 minutes, Halifax were awarded a free kick on the right of the penalty area. Barnet’s attempt to play the offside trap failed and centre-back Mark Monington was left with an easy task of slotting his shot past Gore for Halifax’s second goal.
Half-Time: 2-0
Barnet came out for the second half determined to make up for their disappointing first half performance and the players got together for a group huddle before the game re-started.
They were soon rewarded when, five minutes into the second half, following some nice interplay between Graham and Simon Clist, Graham sped down the left touchline, cut in and put a dangerous cross over, which Halifax defender, Steve Haslam, making his home debut, sliced over goalkeeper, Ian Dunbavin into the far corner of the net for an own-goal.
This goal brought Barnet right back into the game and was followed by their best spell of the game. Though Gore had to save smartly following a crisp snapshot from Howell, Barnet were by now in control of the game and were attacking with far more invention, while at the same time closing Halifax down tightly in midfield.
Hatch missed a good chance to put Barnet level when he scuffed his shot well wide when clear of the Shaymen’s defence, before he made amends in the 68th minute. Richie Graham’s run was broken up on the edge of the penalty area, but some slack defending by Halifax lead to the ball arriving at Hatch’s feet on the edge of the penalty area and he made no mistake this time, driving it into the far corner of the net, giving Dunbavin no chance.
A minute later and the comeback was complete. Spotting Dunbavin off his line, Guiliano Grazioli hit a wonderful lob over the former Shrewsbury goalkeeper, into the top of the Halifax goal for a magnificent goal, already, surely, a contender for goal of the year award!!!!!!!
The Halifax fans were stunned into silence as the players all ran towards Paul Fairclough in celebration of Grazioli’s winner. Barnet controlled the rest of the game with Chris Plummer dealing easily with most of Halifax’s poor tactic of using the long high ball.
However, Halifax almost sneaked an equaliser with a fine curving shot from lively midfielder, Martin Foster, which just curled wide of Shane Gore’s left hand post. In spite of a rather surprising four minutes of injury time added on following a half with hardly any stoppages, Barnet held on comfortably for an historic win.
Halifax manager, Chris Wilder must be sick of the sight of Grazioli by now!
Bees Man of the Match: Richie Graham