In April 2001, Barnet and Cheltenham met in a Division 3 (now League Two) match at Underhill. Barnet, who at one stage of the season had looked likely play-off contenders, had plummeted down the table and now looked more like relegation candidates. Cheltenham, meanwhile were challenging for a play-off place. Earlier in the season, Barnet had lost 4-3 at Whaddon Road.
Cheltenham made the better start against an unsurprisingly nervous, Barnet side and had to thanks keeper, Lee Harrison for several fine saves to keep the Robins from scoring early in. However, on 14 minutes, the visitors took the lead when a Grayson flick on found Robins’ central defender, Duff who slid the ball home from 10 yards.
Cheltenham lost their keeper, Book through injury half way through the first half and he was replaced by Higgs, for his league debut. His first task was to pick the ball out of the net after were awarded a penalty, on 28 minutes, when Yates handled a Goodhind shot in the penalty area. Darren Currie sent the young debutant the wrong way to put Barnet level.
Half Time: Bees 1 Robins 1
The second half saw chances at both ends but the match looked to be heading for a 1-1 draw when, on 85 minutes, Alsop headed against the crossbar for the visitors. Two minutes later, it looked like Barnet had won all three points when Ben Strevens went round Higgs and slotted the ball home to put the Bees 2-1 up.
However, in injury time, Mark Arber needlessly handled the ball on the edge of the penalty area and McCann curled the free kick into the top right hand corner of the goal to make it 2-2. That goal, ultimately proved costly. Had Barnet held on to the three points, Halifax would have gone down instead of Barnet at the end of the season. Unfortunately, it was the Bees who were relegated to the Conference after finishing bottom. Cheltenham missed out on the play-offs finishing 9th.
Full Time: Bees 2 Robins 2
Teams;
Barnet: Harrison, Stockley, Heald, Arber, Goodhind, Currie, Doolan, Sawyers (Niven), Brown, Midgley (Purser), Strevens.
Cheltenham: Book (Higgs), Banks, Walker, Sertori, Duff, Howells, Yates, Milton, McCann, MacDonald (Alsop), Grayson.