Barnet’s narrow defeat at Burton Albion should not be allowed to dent the confidence the team has showed in recent weeks.

The Bees went down to an early, soft penalty when a Burton forward took off his gravity boots once he had advanced into the Barnet penalty area.

In these opening minutes there was a distinct lack of co-ordination about the team, but to their credit once the home side went ahead the Bees manfully went about their task and pushed the home side on the defensive.

The Barnet defence looked resolute, with Graham Stack virtually unemployed, and it looked unlikely that Burton would extend their advantage; their opportunities were mostly on the break.

The defeat is clearly a set-back but I don’t think the side’s resolution will be disrupted by the result since there was a lot of quality about the display.

If we can look beyond the result you could say that a performance of this quality will more often than not pay dividends.

Indeed Harry Crawford’s first touch after he left the bench nearly brought the Bees level; and nobody present would have thought it undeserved.

David Bloomfield