Martin Allen took the blame for Barnet’s failure to hold onto a 3-0 lead in their draw with Kidderminster Harriers, refusing to criticise the referee for failing to spot a handball in Kiddy’s first.

The Bees charged into a 3-0 lead at the break thanks to three strikes in 11 minutes. The first two were sumptuous free kicks from Luisma Villa and Lee Cook, before John Akinde applied the gloss from close-range following a defensive mix-up.

However, a double substitution at half-time from Harriers boss Gary Whild prompted a second-half turnaround. One of the replacements, Michael Gash, crashed home the first after appearing to control the ball with his hand in the build-up.

Two headers from striker Nathan Blissett in the space of 60 seconds turned the game on its head, with the Bees – so comfortable in the first period – forced to cling on for a point.

Reflecting on two points dropped, Allen refused to blame referee Mr Bromley, instead focussing on his own decision to substitute Akinde 11 minutes into the second half.

He said: “I was wrong; I got it wrong – there is no doubt about that – and with hindsight – which is a wonderful thing – perhaps I should have done things differently.

“I took John Akinde off because he has had a tight hamstring before the game and I thought at 3-0 we would be able to get through to the end,” explained Allen. “He has got three yellow cards and he has had a tight hamstring before the match in the pre-match warm-up and I thought we would be able to get through to the end.”

“Obviously I have got my eyes on the future – I do not want to lose him with a hamstring strain, but perhaps in hindsight, perhaps I should have left him on and gone through to the end with him,” Allen added.

Asked for his view on Gash handling the ball in the build-up to his goal, Allen refused to be drawn and said: “If the referee has not seen it we have to take it on the chin and we have to respect the referee’s decision.

“From day one we have not complained about any of the officials and we won’t – we won’t start now. The ref did an OK job today and I am not going to criticise the referee. More importantly I have to look at myself and the substitutions I made.”

Allen could be heard throughout the contest game shouting, ‘tempo, tempo’, from his technical area and highlighted the need for flexibility in style of play.

“We played some really good football in the first half and every team that comes here is going to find it difficult to beat,” enthused Allen. “We tried to get the football down and play and pass it through and get our full-backs forward – which I thought looked really good today.

He continued: “We have had a little chat and worked out sometimes tactically we need to be a little bit different and change things.

“Today we did change it: we brought in Cooky (Lee Cook) and Luisma (Villa) and we wanted to get the ball moving around and having some interchanging of positions, which we did very well. In the second half obviously we lost our way.”