Nationwide Conference
Saturday 29 March 2003

By Ian Pletcher

Barnet's visit to Southport saw a disappointing performance which resulted in a narrow two one defeat in a scrappy game which had a distinct end of season feel about it.

Barnet started the game with two changes from the side that started against Hereford with on loan defender Matt Langston and Junior Agogo replacing the departed Greg Heald and Wayne Purser.

The early exchanges were fairly well balanced with a strong wind blowing across the pitch making good passing very difficult. The Southport defence, which had been pretty leaky over recent games, started nervously and Barnet had plenty of possesion in the Southport half. Unfortunately, the Bees consistently failed to find the final pass, despite several mistakes from the home teams defence. Gradually as they survived these early errors Southport grew in confidence and stopped giving the ball away quite so easily.

Just before the mid point of the half, the first good chance of the game fell to Barnet when Gower's inswinging corner was met by a powerful near post header from Guy Butters. The on loan defender was unfortunate to see a Southport defender clear his effort off the line and over the bar for another corner. By this stage the overall balance of the game had become much more even, although both sides continually misplaced their passes at least in part due to the wind.

Southport posed little real threat to the Barnet goal and Naisbett had little to do in the opening half hour other than watch a couple of long range first time efforts go wide. However, as the half drew to a conclusion Southport clearly started to edge the midfield battle and their raids became more frequent.

Nevertheless they hadn't managed a serious effort on goal when Langston fouled Hornby just outside the penalty area. Lee Ashcroft's free kick was poorly struck, but unfortunately for the Bees, struck the end of the wall and deflected into the opposite corner of the goal leaving Naisbett going the wrong way.

The rest of the first half passed with little incident apart from a booking for Toms after he made an unnecesary and late challenge on a Southport player who was already struggling to keep the ball in play.

Second Half

Three minutes into the second half Barnet had a golden opportunity to get themselves on level terms. Southport half cleared a corner, Barnet lobbed the ball back into the area and Junior Agogo just beat Southport keeper, Dickinson, to the ball, but unfortunately his hooked effort from the corner of the six yard area towards the empty net went just over the bar. It was an awkward angle, but the Bees leading scorer really should have put the Bees level.

The game then settled back into a familiar pattern of scappy play with possesion changing hands too frequently for much flowing football to emerge. With just over an hour gone Martin Allen decided to switch from 5-3-2 to 4-4-2 replacing Lee Pluck with Guy Lopez.

The change misfired as within a couple of minutes of the change Southport's Mulvaney put the home side further ahead with a quality goal, completely out of keeping with the game. He reached a long ball on the edge of the area and and neatly lobbed the ball over Pope, then as it came down volleyed the ball past a startled Naisbett.

For a few minutes Southport had the upper hand and Barnet would have found themselves further behind were it not for a smart save from Naisbett. Barnet's defence went through a sloppy few minutes and they were looking like they might concede again but gradually they began to get back into the game. Agogo squandered another excellent chance for a Barnet goal when he elected to shoot from an impossible angle when he had both Midgely and Gower unmarked in front of goal.

Barnet were getting increasingly frustrated by the referee who awarded Southport a succession of free kicks and showed yellow cards to Gower, Flynn and Langston, while completely ignoring similar offences by Southport, not to mention allowing Southport players to get away with kicking the ball away - a defence which usually results in a yellow card from Conference referees. During the latter part of the half Southport had the ball in the Barnet net twice more, but were denied by the linesmans flag on both occasions.

Barnet mounted something of a fightback in the closing minutes although they made few real chances a combination of bad passing and the ball not running kindly in front of goal meant several good moves faded away without presenting a real threat to the Southport goal. With five minutes left Ben Strevens made a welcome return to first team action after his long lay off, replacing Craig Pope. It looked as though Barnet were destined to home with any reward, but as it turned out they pulled goal back with virtually the last kick of the game.

Not for the first time Gower dribbled directly at the heart of the Southport defence. On this occasions he beat two men before being tackled. However, this time the ball fell kindly off a defender, sitting up for Gower to strike a sweet half volley into the top corner from just inside the penalty area. Sadly for the Bees there was barely time for Southport to restart the game before the final whistle.

Bookings

Barnet

F.Toms, 45, unsporting behaviour
M.Gower, 72, dissent
L.Flynn, 87, unsporting behaviour
M.Langston, 90, unsporting behaviour

Southport

No bookings

Teams

Barnet

D.Naisbitt, M.Langston, K.Rowland, L.Pluck (G.Lopez 64), G.Butters, C.Pope (B.Strevens 84), N.Midgley, L.Flynn, M.Gower, F.Toms, J.Agogo

Unused subs: L.Baimass, R.Millard, C.Cashman

Southport

S.Dickinson, C.Lane, B.Jones, M.Clark, E.Davis, S.Jones, G.Hornby (K.O'Donnell 46), S.Pickford (D.Howell 80), L.McGuire, L.Ashcroft, L.Mulvaney

Unused subs: Pell, K.Charnock, K.Welsby

Other Reports

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