Shrewsbury 2 Barnet 2 (From Times Series)

Shrewsbury 2 Barnet 2

11:12am Wednesday 29th October 2008 in Sport

Barnet fully deserved a draw against high-flying Shrewsbury Town in an engrossing match last night.

Having established a two goal lead inseide the first half hour there was some disappointment that the Bees did not take all three points.

But the encouraging all-round display from the team that showed guts and guile in equal measure went a long way to soften that blow.

Some game nearby were called off and although the conditions did not worsen to the extent that the game was in danger of being called off, the crows was entertained by the sight of a linesman and a ball-boy losing their footing.

With Cliff Akurang out for at least a month with a foot fracture the options available to Barnet manager Paul Fairclough had narrowed.

He selected John O'Flynn as a loan forward, supported by a five man midfield which featured Max Porter in the anchor role.

Left-back Kenny Gillet and left midfielder Nicky Nicolau combined well all evening to foil many Shrewsbury attacks and also to make attacking contributions of their own.

From one such raid in only the fourth minute a cross into the penalty area by Nicolau was expertly headed by Albert Adomah into the path of O'Flynn who wolleyed the Bees into an early lead.

Matters improved even further in the 28th minute when O'Flynn capitalised on a blunder by Michael Jackson, sped past a defender, took the ball around the ex-Orient keeper Glynn Farner and from an acute angle slid the ball into the net.

The lead was nothing less than the Bees deserved and the 68 hardy and loyal Bees fans were jumping for joy - to keep the cold at bay as well as in reponse to how well their team was playing.

Barnet were playing a brand of crisp attacking football that had the home side chasing shadows.

It was clear that Shrewsbury were now going to respond as best they could to the challenge that Barnet had set them and the home side quickly reduced the deficit when, from their next attack, Grant Hold headed home from close range.

The home crowd had been getting increasingly restless and had Barnet been able to hold on to the two goal advantage for a little longer an away victory would have been that little bit more likely.

The goal lifted the home crowd and the Shrewsbury players and they drew level only two minutes later, when Ben Davies curled a free kick from the edge of the penalty area into the top right-hand corner.

Barnet now needed to weather the storm and in goal Lee Harrison was in no mood to concede anotehr. Centre-bacl Michael Townsend gave a commanding display, clearing any danger that came his way.

In the second half Neal Bishop, who had been breaking from midfield all evening, so nearly won the game for the Bees when he latched on to a fine pass from O'Flynn but was just unable to supply the finishing touch.

O'Flynn looked a very good player, working hard to deny the Shrewsbury defence time on the ball and always available to be found by team mates.

It would have been no surprise had he gone on to score a hat-trick.

Shrewsbury did bundle the ball into the net in time added on but there was no doubt, even in the mind of the Shrewsbury manager, that his player had fouled to get into such a position.

Barnet belied their league position with this performance. For the entire match they took the game to Shrewsbury and more than matched them in every department.

A draw was a modest reward for their efforts, yet encouraging in so many ways.