Darren Currie was pleased that Barnet met their objective of reaching the first round of the FA Cup, despite doing it the hard way with a 3-1 win over Potters Bar Town in their fourth qualifying round replay on Tuesday night.

Bar produced one of the shocks of the round by holding the Bees to a 1-1 draw on Saturday and looked set to cause an upset again when Ben Ward-Cochrane fired them in front at The Hive.

Currie’s side showed their quality though, and after Josh Walker’s first-half equaliser, Ephron Mason-Clarke put them in front with a fine finish and Jack Taylor set up a first round tie at home to League One side Fleetwood Town when he scored from the penalty spot after being fouled by R’Avan Constable.

Speaking to the club website, Currie said: “I’m really pleased to win, that’s obviously the objective. In all fairness, it shouldn’t have taken two games to get to where we are but I don’t want to be disrespectful. I respect the competition and obviously everyone raises their games when they’re against teams that are above themselves.

“No disrespect to Potters Bar and no disrespect to the tournament but we’ve had to play the replay tonight and come from behind as well which is disappointing. They’ve had one break and scored from it. That seems to be the theme at the minute with us, teams get one or two opportunities and seem to take them.”

A tie against opposition significantly further down the non-league pyramid gave Currie the opportunity to hand some returning players minutes to boost their recovery, and he was happy with the performances that those players making their way back from injuries put in.

He said: “We got some people some minutes tonight, which was important. We got Andre [Boucaud] 90, Elliott [Johnson] another 20, we got [James] Dunne back sweating properly. It’s good for those boys and I’m pleased to be through to the next round.

“The one thing I hope it brings is healthy competition. I’ve gone on about having a decent squad here and I haven’t had them all to pick from. There’s going to be some disappointed people at the weekend when we go up to Hartlepool because I can’t take them all up there as we go back to having five subs.

“What’s pleasing is the goal scorers tonight, Ephron and Walker, JT scoring the penalty, people getting minutes while coming back from injury.”

Barnet went on a magical FA Cup run last season that saw them make it all the way to the fourth round, beating now Premier League side Sheffield United on their way, but Currie knows that the tie they’ve been handed this time against Fleetwood is as stern a test as last season.

He said: “It’s a team that’s flying high and they’ll be decent. All of a sudden we go from favourite to underdog, which is all part and parcel of the competition.

“We can take confidence from the way we’ve moved the ball about tonight, we created opportunities, we’ve looked lively.

“Hopefully we can apply ourselves correctly and play the football that I want us to play and, who knows, give ourselves a chance to go through again.”