Nationwide Conference
13 December 2003

By Iain Dalziel

Barnet bounced back from last week's cup defeat at Yeovil with a solid away victory at the New Bucks Head, against Telford United.

Twenty four hours before the match Barnet recruited two new players. Twenty one year old, former Reading winger Adam Campion signed on a free from Aylesbury. The other signing, experienced twenty eight year old Geoff Pitcher arrived at Barnet on loan from Brighton.

Pitcher, who has played for no less than six Conference clubs in the past year, got a start in the centre of midfield. Campion was in the squad too, however he failed to make it off the bench.

When the teams first emerged the Bees fans must have been slightly confused to what was going on! Telford came out in their familiar white shirt, but Barnet came out in neither of their own shirts. To the surprise of the Barnet faithful they were in one of Telford's old away shirts. Like they were expected to do Barnet had red shirts, but these had blue sleeves. No one seemed to know the reason for the absence of the player's shirts, the embarrassed kit man refused to comment!

When the game started it was Telford who were on top (the Shropshire side in white-not 'Barnetelford'!). The front duo of the experienced Mills and fellow veteran and club record signing Christian Moore both looked dangerous in the early stages. In the opening ten minutes Barnet created nothing and ended up going behind. Lee Mills received the ball about twenty five yards from goal.

He soon began to gain momentum as he ran at Maddix, who was very reluctant to tackle. Luckily for Barnet Hendon put a foot in, however this still gave Telford a chance as Hendon's touch rolled goal wards. Thankfully for The Bees Rooney slid in and cleared the ball. Still Barnet weren't out of jail, Rooney's clearance falling to Moore. At too much of an angle to shoot himself he squared it to Mills.

Despite also being at angle the Bucks skipper made no mistake, putting Telford ahead. Things continued to look bad for Barnet when Simon King hobbled off shortly afterwards. Shortly after King was in the stand watching, but was worryingly on crutches.

After the bad start Barnet woke up a bit. However they still didn't look very settled and Telford were enjoying most of the play. Barnet looked very disorganized, especially in defence where the experienced Danny Maddix was having a nightmare.

However, with about five minutes left of the half Barnet looked a bit better. Hatch was causing all sorts of problems down the left hand side, but it was his ball from the right, which won the Bees a corner, right at the end of the half. The corner was whipped in, but no one got anything on it until it was on it's was out of the area. Suddenly debutant Geoff Pitcher lashed a mid air volley goal wards, flying past all the defenders along with 'keeper McKenzie, before hitting the net. The half time whistle blew shortly afterwards and the Bees went in on a high.

Second Half

Neither side made any changes at the interval, although Barnet had the psychological advantage of that late first half goal. This was certainly showing as the Bees were looking much stronger than they did in the first forty five. Pitcher was playing an influential role in the middle of the park, spraying accurate passes all over the pitch. Overall Barnet just looked a lot more settled, and were enjoying a lot of possession.

Barnet were now in clear control and on the hour mark took the lead for the first time. A through ball by Joe Gamble took a lucky deflection off a Telford player's knee.

Unfortunately for Telford it fell to Giuliano Grazioli. However, despite being the league's top scorer 'Graz' hadn't scored a league goal since Saturday 1st November. Just thirty yards from goal with only the goalkeeper ahead of him Grazioli put his head down and began to run.

As he approached the area McKenzie started to come out, luckily for the Bees Grazioli hadn't forgotten what to do. The Islington born striker coolly slotted the ball under the 'keeper, before running to the travelling fans in celebration.

After the goal Telford began to look threatening again. However, Chris Plummer and the much improved Danny Maddix weren't letting anything past them or Shane Gore. Instead of just sitting back Barnet went forward in search of a third. With fifteen minutes to go, with Barnet pushing forward Strevens pulled up. It didn't look good, judging by the attacker's reaction it looked like a possible pulled muscle. Instantly Tony Taggart came on, pushing the impressive Hatch up front.

In a nervous final ten minutes the Bucks threw everything at Barnet's penalty area. In stoppage time even goalkeeper McKenzie ventured into the Bees area, but for Telford it was all in vain. Barnet hung on to clinch a very impressive away win.

Making things even better for Barnet was the fact that Chester, Hereford, Exeter and Aldershot were all beaten. Meaning the Bees were the only side in the top five to win, putting Barnet third, only on goal difference behind Hereford.

All in all this was a very impressive battling win form Barnet. The Bees players put their all into a mighty second half display. The whole team's commitment was summed up Chris Plummer'.

His eye was badly swollen, he had a cut and blood was running down his face. However, he still managed to come over to the Bees fans, fists clenched in triumph and literally roaring with delight! If Barnet can maintain the sort of away performance as the second half today, they will certainly be in with a chance come the end of the season.

Iain Dalziel's Man of the Match

Geoff Pitcher

Quotes from the Manager

"I am thrilled for the players because they came in for a lot of criticism for last week's performance.

"But they have put that behind them and responded in the best possible way by beating a very good Telford team who are in excellent form.

"The players showed a lot of character, commitment and quality and defended stoutly in the second half and I felt we deserved the win.

"From the tea lady right through to the chairman everybody was hit hard by last Saturday's result, but this has been great for everyone connected with Barnet."

Match Photos

Thirty two photos of the game by Chris Holland.

Bookings

Barnet

L.Hatch, 17, unsporting behaviour
M.Rooney, 41, unsporting behaviour
D.Maddix, 69, unsporting behaviour
I.Hendon, 90, timewasting

Telford

No bookings

Referee: Matadar, M

Teams

Barnet

S.Gore, I.Hendon, S.King (I.Yakabu 7), C.Plummer, M.Rooney, D.Maddix, J.Gamble, B.Strevens (T.Taggart 57), G.Pitcher, L.Hatch, G.Grazioli

Unused substitutes: G.Lopez, Campion, R.Millard

Telford

C.MacKenzie, M.Clarke (R.Lavery 58), A.Wilkinson, S.Whitehead, S.Ricketts, M.Blackwood (J.Grant 64), F.Simpson, R.Hulbert, T.Challis, L.Mills (T.Naylor 79), C.Moore

Unused substitutes: L.Williams, M.Taylor

Other Reports

Nationwide Conference Website
telfordunitedfc.co.uk (Homepage, not known if report to follow)
diehard telford fans (Homepage, not known if report to follow)

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