Dean Brennan has said that Barnet’s capacity to self-destruct played a huge part in the 2-0 defeat to Salford City on Saturday.
After riding an early wave of pressure from the hosts, Brennan’s side were undone from a long throw as Idris Kanu switched off at the back post, allowing Salford’s Rosaire Longelo to head past Cieran Slicker unmarked.
Matt Butcher then doubled the hosts’ advantage on the stroke of half-time, but despite a valiant second-half display, the Bees failed to give themselves a lifeline and left Peninsula Stadium empty-handed.
“We did damage to ourselves at the back end of the first half. We gave away two horrendous goals. The way we defended at the back post for the first goal – Idris (Kanu) has got to do way better,” said Brennan post-match.
“They had more quality than us. On the day, they had more quality on what was a horrendous pitch. I thought we kept going in the second half, and we kept asking questions (of Salford), but we didn’t bring anywhere near enough quality to the table.
The Bees rallied in the second half up against a Salford team decimated by injuries, although the hosts' capacity to pounce on some poor Barnet defending made the difference.
Speaking to the club website after the defeat, a deflated Brennan said: “We just can’t serve up what we served up today. We would have taken a point here all day long. It looked like it was going to be a dead game coming into the back end of the first half, and then we just gave away two absolutely stupid goals.
“Full credit to them (Salford). I thought their second goal was an excellent finish, but we just didn’t serve up anywhere near enough today. There were too many players below their levels. We’re just not good enough in both boxes.
“We can’t get too down about it. They’ve got a lot of quality, and they have a seriously invested squad. They’ve got loads of injuries today, and they’re still good enough to be able to beat us with the players out on the pitch that they did have.”
Barnet now have ten games to salvage what would be an extraordinary rise to the League Two play-offs from National League glory last season. Brennan’s task is simply to squeeze whatever he can from his players between now and the end of their first campaign back in the EFL for seven years.
"There are ten more games to go. We can’t get too beat up about it. We kept going, and we never gave in,” he said. “Is it our best performance? No. Did we deserve to lose today? Yes, because they have more quality at the top end of the pitch, and we didn’t. We didn’t have one shot on target today.
“The players just need to look at themselves, dust themselves down and move on. We’ve got a big week starting next week where we have a three-game week starting with Newport next Saturday.”
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