Fairclough: We should have beaten the Gunners

8:30am Sunday 20th July 2008

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Barnet manager Paul Fairclough felt his side missed a great chance to record a rare win over North London rivals Arsenal.

Speaking after the 2-1 defeat at Underhill (the Bees were 1-0 up at half-time), Fairclough said: "I'm pleased and disappointed. I wanted to win the game and I felt we had our best opportunity today.

"But tiredness affected the team. They (Arsenal) put a totally different team on at half-time. I wanted my senior players to have a bit longer. They were very tired at the end, but we've only been back in training for two weeks."

However, Fairclough was delighted with the way his players performed in the first half.

"It was a fantastic performance against a very strong team."

And he revealed that Kenny Gillet's free-kick, which gave the Bees the lead, was something they had rehearsed on the training ground this week.