Brennan: Barnet were "diabolical" in front of goal

The reigning National League champions are now on a seven-match run without victory in League Two, drawing five and losing two over that period.

Brennan is often complimentary of his team’s capacity to deliver in the big moments, but the deflated Barnet boss chose to take aim at his players following another disappointing result in the club’s first season back in the EFL for 8 years.

“We were diabolical in front of goal. 3 stonewall penalties in the second half. Basically, that’s how I feel. I think it’s two points dropped once again, and we haven’t done well enough in front of goal all season,” Brennan told the club website post-match.

“After 18 games I think we’ve scored 21 goals. It’s nowhere near good enough, especially for an attack-minded team. I’m an attack-minded manager. But, we’ll continue to work hard and just keep working individually on our game. That’s all we can do.”

The hosts opened the scoring through Britt Assombalonga’s tidy finish after 23 minutes as the Bees went in at half-time a goal to the good, but Mark Shelton’s first missed penalty for the club just two minutes before the break preceded a profligate second-half display as Barnet were pegged back 12 minutes from time by Harrogate’s Jack Muldoon.

Clearly dejected by what he had seen from his team, Brenna said: “We did finishing all this week [in training]. We did finishing all last week, and obviously a big moment is the penalty save. Shelts hasn’t missed a penalty for us yet – that’s his first time to do that. I thought he showed good courage after that to personally get on with his game and work hard for the team.”

“But we deserved what we got today because we were so wasteful.”

Despite taking the lead, Barnet were unable to stamp their authority on the game and were guilty of several giveaways in their own half which led to several Harrogate chances.

Assombalonga, who has enjoyed a fruitful career throughout English football’s top divisions, showed his ability with a brilliantly taken goal

“That first 20 minutes, I just want to forget about. We were that bad. Then we made an entry, and we got into their back line. We were physical, and we got a goal from it,” said Brennan.

“Britt’s got the class. We’ve just got to get him fit and get him sharp. The finish is incredible, and he’s had the career; he’s earned the money, and I call that [the goal] the money because that’s what he can do.

“I didn’t want to play him for 70 minutes, I’ve got to be honest. But he’s going to be pivotal for us going forward if we’re going to win games of football. That’s where a lot of our younger lads - Stead, Glover, Kanu - they all want to get to that level.

“That’s what they’ve got to aspire to.”

Barnet will enjoy this weekend off before they host Bristol Rovers on Tuesday 9th December as Brennan’s side look to recover from their disappointing league form of late.