The first chance fell to the visitors inside the opening three minutes as Alex Reid, flashed an effort wide of Scott Loach’s goal. The Bees had an opening themselves when Anthony Wordsworth was picked out, but his scooped effort went over the crossbar. 

It was a very even opening at a foggy Hive, but it would be the Hatters who had the next best chance as Loach made a fantastic save to deny Williams from close range following a good ball in from the left hand side. 

Inih Effiong again caused problems all evening and could have opened the scoring when McQueen picked him out but his downward header bounced the wrong side of the post. 

Seven minutes before the break, Peter Beadle’s side should have been ahead as McQueen and Effiong combined, but with the goal gaping the on loan striker couldn’t find the finish to McQueen’s delightful cross. 

Instead, it would be the Hatters who went in ahead, as Reid broke the offside trap before calmly lofting the ball over Loach and into the back of the net. 

The Bees got themselves right back into the game straight after the break, as Jack Connors cross found it’s way to Ephron Mason-Clark who made no mistake with the finish from six yards. 

Beadle’s side were then in the ascendancy and caused their visitor’s real problems, as the Hatter ‘keeper got down well to turn away a close-range effort. 

The game turned on its head when Wordsworth was shown a straight red for a strong challenge on Sam Minihan, it looked harsh on first viewing but the referee was in no doubt. 

We reacted well to going behind and continued to play on the front foot for the immediate minutes following the sending off, debutant Bilel Mohsni went inches away from putting us ahead as he turned Connors cross just wide of the near post. 

But the Hatters made their extra man count as time ticked on and found the eventual winner 17 minutes from time as Reid was there again to finish following a flicked header at the near post. It was cruel on the 10 man Bees who had tried to rally themselves despite having one man less. 

The visitors grew in confidence after they went ahead and had chances to put the game to bed, but found Loach in determined form as he made some good stops to keep us in the game. 

As the game closed, we tried to put the ball forward and had chances with a couple of set pieces, but ultimately the 11 man Hatters stood strong and took the points back to the North-West. 

Barnet: Loach, Connors, Dunne (C), McQueen, Mohsni, Taylor, Effiong, Fonguck (Faal ’79), Mason-Clark, Nugent, Wordsworth.

Subs not used: Azaze, Pascal, Binnom-Williams, Vasiliou. 

BEADLE’S REACTION: