Woking point puts Bees 14 points clear

6:37pm Saturday 8th January 2005

Woking 1 Barnet 1 . . .

An early Lee Roache goal earned Barnet a point and sent them 14 points clear at the top.

With Carlisle losing 1-0 at Crawley, this turned out to be another excellent afternoon for the Bees.

Manager Paul Fairclough summed up: "We come to an away fixture and end up going further clear . . . it's been a very good day for Barnet Football Club."

He added: "We can't have it all our own way all of the time. Woking are a very strong side and made it difficult for us. You have to scrap for every point."

The strong wind meant this was never going to be a classic, but both sides had plenty of chances.

Giuliano Grazioli saw an early lob go over and also clipped the bar with a header as Barnet started strongly.

The opener came on ten minutes. Ian Hendon swung in a cross from the right and Roache nipped in at the near post to capitalise on poor defending and hesitation from keeper Shwan Jamal.

The ball over the top continued to cause Woking problems and the Cards struggled to make much impact at the other end.

Ben Strevens almost made it two when he arrived at the far post to meet a Damian Batt cross, but was unable to direct the ball home. Two minutes later Grazioli saw Jamal block a well-struck snapshot from just inside the box.

Steve Ferguson had Woking's best chance but his rasping volley cleared the bar by a matter of inches.

If Barnet were in command of the first half, Woking certainly had the better of the second and the Bees had to be strong in defence, Anthony Charles looking impressive on his debut.

Midway through the half Neil Smith saw a diving header go just wide, but, with 20 minutes to go, Gary MacDonald headed down an Ian Selley corner for Luke Oliver to head in off the bar.

Barnet keeper Scott Tynan had to pull off two excellent blocks to deny Ferguson and Louis Jefferson in the final minutes, but the Bees held on to claim what turned out to be another valuable point on their travels.

BARNET (4-4-2): Tynan; Hendon, Yakubu, Charles, Clist; Batt (Lopez 84), Bailey, Sinclair, Strevens; Roache (Hatch 51), Grazioli (McBean 90).

Attendance: 2,802.