Rossi Eames lamented Barnet’s failure to dictate the tempo as the Bees went down 2-0 to in-form Mansfield Town at The Hive London.

Goals in either half from Ben Whiteman and Shaq Coulthirst – tucking home from the spot following a foul by Ricardo Santos – sealed three points for the Stags in a stop-start encounter littered with fouls.

Barnet’s best chances came via Nana Kyei, who blazed over following substitute Luke Coulson’s cut-back, and debutant Ruben Bover who rattled the woodwork with a stunning free-kick.

Speaking afterwards Eames said: “We’ve got to be braver, get the ball down and take the tempo to the opposition. 

“Once you dictate the tempo of the game the game is yours. We didn’t do that today – at all.”

He added: “You can have all the possession in the world but the main thing is scoring the goals. We have to be more clinical, assertive with it and have more purpose. You can pass backwards and sideways all day but you have to break lines, get in behind and have more variation.”

The Bees joint head coaches had called for a fast start in the week but that did not come to fruition during a scrappy and disjointed first half.

Newman commented: “We did not start the game on the front foot which allowed them into the game. 

“Our best performances this season have been when we’ve started on the front foot, got into the opposition when out of possession and dominated the ball in possession.  

“We tried to change it in the second half, which gave us a little bit of impetus, and we changed the shape slightly. 

“Our work out of possession was OK. Our work in possession was much better but we still didn’t create the number of chances we wanted to.”

You can watch Rossi and Henry’s full interview below: