Barnet made two changes to the line-up that had delivered a below-par performance at Dagenham in the last game. Andy Iro came in for his debut, replacing Krystian Pearce who has returned to Notts County and Mark Bryrne was in the starting XI at the expense of Jon Nurse, who was named as a substitute.
With a quarter of an hour gone Barnet produced their first move of note when Holmes went down the left with Jake Hyde almost turning the delivery into the net.
With their very next attack the visitors were ahead. Barry Fuller fouled Jacques Maghoma with Billy Kee thumping the resultant spot kick home; 16 minutes had elapsed.
Burton then had a number of good chances to extend their lead, but they found Graham Stack in fine form and his saves certainly kept the Bees in the game.
Andy Yiadom then delivered a fine cross from the right and then he himself should have converted an opportunity from another Holmes centre but his header was wayward.
Then with just three minutes remaining of the first-half Burton’s Damien McCory gifted an opportunity to Holmes with a slack back-pass. Once Holmes had recovered from the shock of receiving this gift-wrapped chance he waltzed around their keeper and slotted the ball home.
Clovis Kamdjo on a booking and carrying a knock was replaced at half-time by John Oster and it was the Wales international’s introduction that gave the Bees midfield some much needed composure.
On 53 minutes the Bees took the lead when they were awarded a generous penalty for an alleged handball. Holmes seized the ball and the opportunity and amazingly the Bees had got themselves ahead.
On 66 minutes the Bees scored the best goal of the match. Oster expertly slung a pass out wide to Yiadom who powered past his full-back and put a cross into the middle. The Burton defence did not clear the danger and Holmes was on hand to steer the ball into the net to complete his hat-trick.
Not only were the Bees ahead but they now had a two-goal cushion. An unlikely scenario after 40 minutes of play; but credit must go to the players for the resolve shown.
Just so the Bees couldn’t play out time in a relaxed fashion the referee gave a 90th minute penalty to the Brewers with confusing raging as to the culprit or indeed the misdemeanour. Maghoma scored from the spot-kick and despite there being 5 minutes of play to be added on the visitors didn’t really offer up any more danger.
With the referee’s final whistle the Bees could now rest easy, and so could whistle itself, of which we had heard much.
With three points in the bag, the Bees move out of the bottom two and Holmes will rightly pick up the plaudits but Stack is also worth a mention in these despatches for three saves which in their own way were just as significant.
The Bees are at table topping Gillingham on Boxing Day, with the game kicking-off at 1 o’clock.
