Barnet 0 Exeter City 1 (From Times Series)

Barnet 0 Exeter City 1

9:20pm Saturday 25th October 2008 in Sport By Kevin Bradford

A clinical away performance by Exeter City left some Barnet players “starry eyed”, according to manager Paul Fairclough.

The Bees created little in a match which was dominated by a classy passing performance by the visitors.

Exeter wasted several clear cut chances in the first half before clinching the win via a deflected finish from Matthew Gill.

Fairclough admitted that before the game, the players were warned about the quality of the opposition, who are enjoying a flourishing start to their first season back in the football league.

“I told the players they would meet the best footballing side they would face all season,” said the manager.

“I wasn’t shocked at all but the players were taken aback, and for the first 20 minutes we were star-struck and starry eyed, we didn’t get amongst them at all.”

The Grecians began strongly and created two chances early on as their passing game opened up the lacklustre home side.

Adam Stansfield missed a clear chance when one-on-one with Lee Harrison, firing wide after 17 minutes.

Ten minutes later he found the ball at his feet six yards out after a scrappy goal-line clearance by Ismail Yakubu, but could only hook his shot against the outside of the post.

A better second half display saw Barnet ask more questions of the dominant Exeter back line, with Albert Adomah pressing forward with pace on the right.

But they were dealt a sucker blow when veteran striker Marcus Stewart found space in the area and his deflected shot bobbled into the path of Gill whose low effort went through the legs of Joe Devera and past a sprawling Harrison.

Adomah almost immediately responded but his drilled shot flashed wide, before substitute Cliff Akurang missed a clear headed chance when set up by a pin-point cross from Luke Medley.

“I was up, I thought it was a goal,” admitted Fairclough.

“Exeter were unfortunate they hadn’t scored in the first half, Harrison made a couple of good saves, but having said that we should have scored.

“We had two gilt-edged chances, maybe against the run of play, but they’re the ones you have to take. And it could have changed the game completely.

“They are a very good team and the best team won today — there’s no question about that. “We huffed and we puffed but sometimes you hold your hands up.

“The most important thing is you try to beat these better sides and you try to get in and got amongst them. We shut them down better in the second half, created a couple of chances but didn’t score them and sods law they had one chance and it’s gone through someone’s legs, and we’ve ended up losing the game.”