Vanarama National League strugglers Barnet signed off the season with a 2-0 win over champions Sutton at the Hive.

Sutton were given a guard of honour by Barnet as the players walked out onto the pitch, but there was little action at either end during a low-key first half.

The Bees, who will not be relegated after the National League North and South seasons were curtailed because of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, stepped things up following the restart.

The deadlock was eventually broken on the hour when Harry Taylor’s cross was deflected onto the post, apparently off Aaron Simpson, and collected by Sutton goalkeeper Dean Bouzanis – but the assistant referee signalled the ball had crossed the line.

Barnet midfielder Ephron Mason-Clark saw his shot come back off the crossbar, as did Sutton’s Adam Lovatt at the other end, before Bees substitute Josh Walker added a second goal in stoppage time.

After the game, Bees’ boss Simon Bassey described the win as a good building block for next season, after what had been on the whole a campaign to forget.

“It was a difficult game,” he told the Barnet YouTube channel. “Sutton came and we we knew exactly what they would be, they made a few changes to their team, which was a little bit surprising.

“It was a real end of season-y game, it’s boiling hot, the pitch is a little bit long, a bit dry, but we had to find a way to win.

“I challenged the boys at half time to dig deep for one last game, one last half, we’ve had a difficult schedule certainly since I’ve been in, had a lot of games.

“We’re not a lot of bodies, so to get them to regroup and show the energy levels they produced in the second half at times was really pleasing.”

Another aspect of the match that Bassey was pleased with was the clean sheet, their second in a row as they finished the season with an unbeaten three game streak.

“If you’re going to be successful in this league, certainly clean sheets are something you have to you have to work on,” said Bassey.

“To achieve that and then to send the fans off into the summer with that, it’s a great building block for us moving forward.”