Martin Allen believes that there are plenty of positives to take from the Bees’ 3-2 defeat to Eastleigh, despite the result. 

Speaking after the game, Barnet’s manager said:

“I thought that the lads played pretty well – we were unlucky and two individual errors cost us dear. 

“But both of those were from young players. The attitude of our senior players was spot on. 

“We had numerous chances in the first half to win the game; to be comfortable and clear. 

“But as we’ve always seen, if you don’t take those chances then you don’t win the game. 

“Some of our young players that played tonight were absolutely superb.

“Joe Payne is a good player – he scored one goal and made the other, so I’d say he did quite well for a 17-year-old!

“He still isn’t as physically developed as the other players are and he isn’t quite ready for men’s football yet. 

“But I can promise you one thing – within six months that boy is going to be getting close.

“There are also a couple of senior players who have really given me something to think about, in terms of who is going to be on the bench and who is going to be in the first team. 

“Of course I am disappointed to lose and I don’t want to see a culture where we’re happy with a defeat. 

“I want it ingrained in everyone that we’re Barnet and wherever we go we want to win. 

“I hate losing, but there are a lot of positives to come out of the game. 

“It was good experience for some of our young players and it was good for some of our senior players to play 90 minutes. 

“Now we face Oxford United on Saturday – the team that played against Gillingham will play in that match. 

“We’ll go again at the weekend and all the best players from tonight will be on the bench.

“So it’s happy days – I can’t wait for that game.”