A quick turnaround over the Bank Holiday weekend meant two games in 48 hours for most non-league sides, a bit brutal at the end of a long month for those part timers.
Having suffered a first defeat of the season at Dagenham on the Saturday, there was a chance to make amends for Barnet on the Monday as newly promoted Ebbsfleet were the visitors to The Hive.
A sixth game within the month of August laying down foundations for whatever comes our way in the months to follow. The visitors had started quite brightly eager themselves to show they will be a force to be reckoned with as the campaign goes on.
With Idris Kanu ruled out with injury the Bees adopted a more compact formation in midfield certainly looking to dominate the ball against a side that contained decent experience for the level.
Barnet were out of the blocks the quicker and should have had the lead in the opening ten minutes, Fleet unable to get out of their half but those efforts didn’t find the target and the Bees paid the price on 14 minutes.
Dom Poleon was sent flying away towards the home penalty area and as defenders backed away, took aim and slotted hard past Laurie Walker for the game’s opening goal.
The strike was certainly against the run of play and their first on target, the Bees then falling pretty flat for the next 20 minutes or so, seemingly surprised their opening pressure had yielded no return and then found themselves behind.
The momentum did pick up again, but the equalising goal didn’t come until first half stoppage time, a low Ben Wynter cross found the diving head of Nicke Kabamba and Barnet were deservedly level, a great time to score and no doubt a change to half time team talks.
The home side were on the front foot from the off for the second half, Zak Brunt at the heart of most things going forward and it was indeed Brunt’s cross that bounced off Wynter into the path of Kabamba and the striker made sure the Bees were in the lead just after the hour mark.
However, the lead lasted just seven minutes, Poleon found unmarked around the penalty spot and the striker grabbed his and Fleet’s second to give the visitors hope for a point.
Brunt was close to restoring the home side’s lead on 76 minutes but his fantastic effort wouldn’t dip under the bar, but four minutes on the same combination for the Bees second goal were at it again for a third Barnet goal, Kabamba with a hat-trick.
It could have been sealed with two minutes left; substitute Courtney Senior played in but dragged his effort just wide of former Bee Mark Cousins far post. Despite seven minutes of stoppage time the visitors couldn’t find a third equaliser and Barnet hung on for a third straight home win and second place in the table to finish August.
A 13 point haul from the opening six games is a very decent return and given that it should actually be two more after they were dropped at Eastleigh, certainly be a few other clubs who would gladly swop positions with us.
Poleon certainly stood out for the visitors, a striker I’ve long admired, whilst Darren McQueen had a strong first half against Ben Coker. The other two former Bees, a quiet afternoon for Shaq Coulthirst whilst Josh Wright didn’t have as much influence on the game as I expected.
Great to see there are a good set of standards being instilled in the players, the quality we have now in depth is the best it’s been for a number of years and while I don’t expect it to carry us through every game no doubt the management staff will be keen to see it happening week in week out.
The beauty of writing this a few days after the game means I get to take in the highlights and the post-match interviews. One or two were surprised Dean singled out Laurie and Nicke, personally I don’t think Laurie is in a bad patch, collectively I’m not convinced we’re defending the box at all well, further up the pitch we are, something to fix and work on despite having some wonderful defensive talent.
As for Nicke, right place for the hat-trick and he did get praise for it, Dean however was right he should have had more in that match and his tally of five so far should be much higher, good chances that have been missed, not half ones that might have been. To me, that’s the standard now, there was disappointment we didn’t get anything from Saturday.
On the flip side, it’s three more points towards the target, only one club had a better month than us, we’re on a massive upward curve and you have to keep pushing that little bit more out of everyone to finish on a high.
September doesn’t get any easier either, plenty more football to come and no doubt there’s some great games to come as the autumn heads our way and the closing of the EFL transfer window every likelihood of some movement in the coming weeks.
Good to catch up with Dave Mercado after the game for a few beers and to chew the fat, also great to see Michael Hanley before the game, a long time mate through the years, Dave Anderson there afterwards as well, there’s just so many names and faces to strike up a chat with.
It seems there will be so many ex Barnet players lined up against us this season, almost every match against the Southern teams.