Disappointment was the word most used to describe the performance, the result and how one felt after Barnet succumbed to York City by a 3-1 scoreline at Underhill.
Once the visitors took an early lead they were in almost total control of proceedings and by being two goals to the good with just after a quarter of an hour gone they had quickly established a commanding lead.
Jon Nurse did narrow the deficit with half an hour gone, but this glimmer of hope was cruelly extinguished when the visitors scored in time added on in the first half.Â
There were no further goals in the second period as the Bees performed marginally better than they had in the opening forty-five minutes, although this was still below a standard that would get you back in the game.
Ricky Holmes had had a good effort in the opening exchanges but his attempt did not have enough curl to genuinely trouble Michael Ingham in the York goal.
In the 7th minute Daniel Parslow hit a shot into the ground that then seemed to gain momentum to land in the corner of the net and less than ten minutes later Ashley Chambers burst through from midfield and hit a great shot into the top corner to give York the lead. His path to goal had looked too easy.
Jon Nurse then had an effort that hit the side netting and Anthony Edgar had a strike that was pushed wide for a corner as the Bees attempted to salvage their situation.
Then excellent work down the right by Andy Yiadom when he persisted and eventually got a cross into the middle was expertly steered goal-wards by Nurse to raise hopes on the half-hour.
These hopes of a comeback were to be dashed though just before half-time when Michael Coulson was able to twist and turn his man in the box and pick his spot to re-establish the two goal differential. A differential that it was difficult to argue against.
After stern words at half-time the Bees sought a goal that might pave a way back into this fixture. This hope soon burned itself out, but praise needs to be given to Yiadom for the way he keep attacking down the right flank.
In the second half Barnet mustered efforts by Edgar and a good shot on the turn by Jake Hyde but these were occasional flashes rather than a concentrated effort to claw a way back into the game.
Jon Smith had managed to miss an open goal when he failed to connect with a cross that he surely should have converted which would have made the scoreline even more uncomfortable; but 1-3 was discomfort aplenty.
Early in the second-half Jon Nurse sustained what looked like a serious neck injury which necessitated him to leave the pitch on a stretcher with his neck in a brace; he left the pitch to heartfelt applause from both sets of supporters. For a time he was motionless whilst he was attended to by the club’s physio Stuart Ayles and by Dr Tamin Khanbhai. The injury meant that nine minutes was added on at the end of normal time. After the match Head Coach Mark Robson said that he had been taken to hospital and would have the injury "scanned" to discover the extent of the injury.
The Bees are at Rochdale on Saturday.