9:23am Sunday 25th November 2007
By Paul Wreyford
Barnet 0 Grimsby Town 3 . . .
FIVE defeats and no goals.
That is Barnet's dismal record against the Mariners in competitive football.
With the visitors at the wrong end of the table, the Bees saw this latest encounter as the perfect chance to improve that statistic, but they put in arguably their worst performance of the season.
Though Barnet enjoyed plenty of possession, they lacked the cutting edge and gifted Grimsby their three goals.
From the moment Danny North prodded home the opener on ten minutes after the hosts struggled to clear a corner, the Bees were always up against it.
That was a soft goal, but not as bad as the other two.
The killer second came two minutes before the interval. Captain Ismail Yakubu, clearly struggling with a groin injury, played a ball short to Kenny Gillet. He still had time to clear, but tried to dribble his way out of danger. North dispossessed him and beat the advancing Lee Harrison with a neat flick over the keeper.
The second half did not get much better for Barnet. In fact, Grimsby had a few chances to wrap things up long before the end.
But they had to wait until a minute from time for their third, and it was another gift, Ciaran Toner eventually slotting home unchallenged, the Barnet defence all over the place by this time.
The Bees only really created a few half-chances in the first half. Yakubu saw a near-post header saved, while Adam Birchall was twice denied by the keeper within the space of two minutes.
Jason Puncheon also had a couple of efforts, but, once again, Barnet's star man had another off-day.
The home side's best chances came in the final ten minutes, but the game was all over by then.
Josh Wright came the closest to a consolation goal, but saw his shot cleared off the line in injury time.
By then the heads had already dropped and manager Paul Fairclough admitted afterwards that he will have to work hard to try to bring some confidence back into his side in time for Saturday's FA Cup trip to Burton.
The Bees look likely to be without Yakubu for that contest. He had to be replaced at half-time.
Puncheon will also be missing after picking up a fifth yellow card of the campaign.
All in all, this was a day to forget for Barnet.
BARNET (4-4-2): Harrison; Devera (Nicolau 70), Yakubu (O'Cearuill 45), Burton, Gillet; Leary (Carew 52), Wright, Bishop, Puncheon; Birchall, Hatch. Subs not used: Beckwith, Grazioli.
Attendance: 2,059.
* See Thursday's paper for full match report, analysis and pictures.
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