Strevens heads Barnet winner (From Times Series)

Strevens heads Barnet winner

6:34pm Saturday 29th October 2005 in Sport By Paul Wreyford

Barnet 2 Rushden & Diamonds 1 . . .

Ben Strevens headed a 74th-minute winner to end more than two months of league hurt for Barnet.

Strevens connected to Ian Hendon's cross and sent a looping header over sub keeper Jamie Young to earn the Bees their first win in 12 league games.

Manager Paul Fairclough admitted he was relieved his team had finally got through a psychological barrier.

He said: "It hangs around in the mind and we were determined to shift it.

"The most important thing is that we have won. We have broken a psychological barrier that has been hanging around for nine or ten weeks. It should give us some much required confidence on the pitch."

This was no vintage Barnet performance, but Fairclough called it a "very big win for us".

Barnet, who rested Giuliano Grazioli following their exploits at Old Trafford on Wednesday, started brightly and came close to scoring on seven minutes when Liam Hatch beat keeper Andy Woodman to a ball over the top from Strevens. Hatch was only denied a goal by a block from Rob Gier.

Meanwhile, Woodman was carried off injured following the incident and Young went on to endure a torrid afternoon.

He gifted the Bees their opener just before the interval. Having placed the ball on the ground in preparation to clear, he failed to notice Dwane Lee behind him and the Barnet midfielder stole in to nick the ball from him. Lee then rolled the ball home from a tight angle to give the hosts the lead. Fairclough described it as "an intelligent piece of football" but it was a moment Young will want to forget.

Earlier, Rushden had carved out three good openings, but they were off target with all of them.

The visitors finally struck on 65 minutes after Ross Flitney had got his fingertips to a Chris O'Grady shot. From the resultant corner, the Bees could only half clear and John Dempster found the net after Nicky Bailey had blocked an initial effort on the line.

But Barnet were back in front ten minutes later and, from that moment, the result was never in doubt.

Drewe Broughton was red-carded for an off-the-ball incident with five minutes to go and Strevens almost rubbed salt into the wound with a third, but his drilled shot was acrobatically turned over by Young.

BARNET (4-4-2): Flitney; Hendon, Charles, Yakubu, Gross; Bailey, Lee, Sinclair, Strevens; Hatch, Roache (Norville 75). Subs not used: Hickie, Batt, Graham, Soares.

Attendance: 2,564.

Best Bee: Nicky Bailey.