Fairclough takes pride in defeat

7:31pm Saturday 26th January 2008

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Barnet boss Paul Fairclough hailed his players after their brave FA Cup exit this afternoon.

"I'm very proud of my team," he said.

He described their first-half performance as the best he had seen from a Barnet team since arriving as manager at Underhill.

"You could have been forgiven for thinking you were watching a Premier Division side in the first half. They couldn't get near us or tackle us.

But the goal unsettled us (Rovers scored early in the second half) and we lost our momentum."

Fairclough added: "In the first half, we gave Bristol a lesson in how to play football."

The Bees played some excellent stuff and were very unlucky not to have earned at least a replay.

"We didn't deserve that result. My players were outstanding in all areas."

Barnet's Jason Puncheon missed an early penalty, but Fairclough believed the Bees should have had a second one, when Cliff Akurang saw a header blocked with an arm.

"It looked more like a penalty than the first one . . .but that's football," Fairclough said.