The Bees fell to a frustrating 3-1 defeat on home soil in matchday seven of the 2025/26 Sky Bet League Two campaign, giving Shrewsbury Town there first win of the season.
Despite a bright start, in which Mark Shelton gave the Bees a deserved lead, Shrewsbury scored from the restart, and the rest of the afternoon didn’t fall in favour of the hosts.
Everyone at the Hive thought the visitors had taken an early lead inside five minutes when Tommy McDermott was through on goal, but his effort was straight into the side netting.
Ryan Glover caused some early issues for the Sallop defence, using his pace and directness and get the ball into dangerous areas, but nothing that troubled the visiting defence too much.
Our number 15 laid the ball into the feet of Nnamdi Ofoborh who found himself on the edge of the box, but he couldn’t keep his effort on target.
Shelton struck first in the tie to give the Bees the lead inside 15 minutes. Ofoborh pulled the ball back into the centre of the box where the number 19 was waiting and he confidently fired it into the roof of the net to give the hosts the advantage.
Shrewsbury levelled the score just after the restart, with Danny Collinge unfortunately getting the last touch on a Bradley Ihionvien effort to see the visitors ahead.
The Bees came close to taking the lead again when Scott High delivered an inviting ball into the box and it ricocheted off the post before Adam Senior’s effort from close-range was over the bar.
Dean Brennan was shown a red card midway through the first 45 and Connor Smith took charge on the touchline.
Shrewsbury got their second through Ihionvien and came close to a third a minute later, but Cieran Slicker managed to block the effort out for a corner.
High delivered a ball into the area to find Oli Hawkins, who was brought down in the area, but the offside flag was up and any chance of a penalty disappeared.
Shelton had a great chance to score his second of the half late on, but his effort from the right-hand side of the box was straight into the hands of Will Brook in the Shrewsbury goal.
The Sallop scored their third a few minutes before the half-time whistle blew and were clean through for a fourth, but Slicker was there to deny John Marquis’ shot and the hosts had a two-goal cushion to contend with going into the break.
Half-time: Barnet FC 1-3 Shrewsbury Town
A half-time change for the Bees saw Ryan Galvin replace Ben Winterburn, who had played his first 45 minutes of league action in a Barnet shirt.
An early corner for the Bees came shortly after the restart, but Senior’s header glanced just over the bar.
A triple change was made on 63 minutes, with Senior, Kane Smith and Nnamdi Ofoborh being replaced by Callum Stead, Nik Tavares and Dennis Adeniran.
The second-half played out quietly for the most part, with neither side creating many chances in front of their respective goals.
Anthony Hartigan replaced Scott High in our final change of the afternoon.
Glover found Ofoborh in space in the area and looked to be dragged down, but any penalty shouts were quickly waved away.
The Bees turned up the tempo in the late stages and found themselves in Shrewsbury’s box on a number of occasions.
Galvin worked the ball into the box well and got a shot away, but it was straight into the hands of Brook, followed by a delivery from Idris Kanu to the head of Glover, but again the ball comfortably landed in Brook’s gloves.
The Bees created the final chance of the game, with Glover heading the ball from a difficult angle goalwards, but Brook was able to parry it away and Shelton’s follow up shot was wide.
Full-time: Barnet FC 1-3 Shrewsbury Town
The Bees are next in action on Saturday 13th when they face Crewe Alexandra at the Moornflake Stadium.
Line-up: Slicker, Collinge, Senior (Tavares, 63’), High (Hartigan, 63’), Kanu, Hawkins, Glover, Winterburn (Galvin, 45’), Shelton, Smith (Stead, 63’), Ofoborh (Adeniran, 63’)
Goals: Shelton (14’)
Attendance: 3009, with 490 visitors