Barnet head coach Martin Allen says he cannot sweep the Bees’ recent slump under the carpet, insisting they must instead learn from their mistakes.

A 3-1 defeat by Grimsby Town, coupled with another win for Bristol Rovers means second-placed Gas will leapfrog the Bees if they win at home to Braintree Town on Tuesday evening.

Late goals from Craig Disley and Jon-Paul Pittman condemned Barnet to their third defeat in five and leave Allen’s side facing the very real prospect of being knocked off top spot for the first time since August 30.

Barnet held an eight-point lead over their title rivals at the end of January but have seen that barrier pulled down slowly but surely in recent weeks after losing four from seven since the turn of the year.

“We need to try and learn, that is the key point,” stated a bullish Allen. “We can’t brush it under the carpet and say everything is fantastic because it is not. We have got work to do, we have got to learn from what we have done.”

Asked if he and his squad were feeling under pressure as the battle to reach the Football League intensifies, Allen said: “Everyone is. We are not sitting back on our beach chairs and thinking, ‘What a wonderful world.’ It is the name of the game isn’t it? The sharp end – fantastic.”

He continued: “When he had a seven-point lead I never spoke about it. When we have a five-point lead, a four-point lead, a nine-point lead and a one-point lead, I just deal with each game one at a time and try to help the players the best I can.

“Whatever will be will be. I never said anything when we went miles ahead and I am not going to say anything now.

Two sucker-punch goals undid the Bees, who had been set for a point after Conor Clifford’s stunning equaliser cancelled out a first-half strike from forward Christian Jolley.

It has been Allen’s policy all season to re-enforce defensively towards the end of tight games but the Mariners were twice able to pick the lock in the final minutes of a pulsating encounter.

“I did not really see it (the second goal) coming,” conceded Allen. “It came off a free-kick which is a set play and we don’t really concede many goals from set plays, so that was a surprise.

“We have to take a few deep breaths, get back on the training pitch and get onto the next game at Altrincham.”

The Bees boss added: “Graham (Stack) had pulled off one very good save in the second half, which prior to the goals, was a key save.

“But apart from that one effort I don’t think they challenged our goal. It was us dominating apart from that one save down to his (Stack’s) right.”

You can read the match report from a potentially decisive afternoon in the Conference title race by clicking here.