A late goal in both halves saw the Bees beat Bristol Rovers on the road to round of 2025 with a hard-fought win.
Dean Brennan made one change to the side from the Boxing Day clash against Newport County, with Ben Winterburn in from the start and Britt Assombalonga taking his place on the bench.
Callum Stead wasn’t involved in the matchday squad, with Kane Smith and Anthony Hartigan both returning from illness to provide strong options in the middle on the bench.
The Bees were hoping to replicate the result in the reverse fixture earlier this month, where goals from Adam Senior, Nnamdi Ofoborh, Mark Shelton and Callum Stead saw Barnet earn a comfortable victory at the Hive.
Cieran Slicker was involved in the action inside the opening couple of minutes, but only to gather a cross coming in from the right from Fabrizio Cavegn who was trying to find a Bristol body in the box.
Bristol enjoyed the majority of the possession in the opening moments but were unable to create many opportunities to show for it.
Ryan Glover won the first corner of the evening for the Bees inside the first ten minutes, but Ben Winterburn’s set-piece couldn’t beat the first man.
Neither side created much in front of goal as the half progressed. Glover drove with the ball into the final third alone, but was stopped in his tracks and no other amber and black shirt was up there to help him.
The Bees’ first real chance in front of goal came on 25 minutes. Adam Senior delivered the ball into the area from out on the right-hand side and Idris Kanu met it with his heads, but he directed it wide of the target and the linesman’s flag was up for offside.
Joel Cotterill had the ball in the back of the net for Bristol Rovers shortly after down the other end of pitch, but the offside flag was raised again.
The Blues’ number ten was involved again when he laid the ball into the path of the oncoming Ruel Sotiriou, but the Bristol forward lost his footing and couldn’t control the ball at his feet.
Just as it looked like the game was going to be goalless heading into the break, Barnet had other ideas. Mark Shelton whipped in a free-kick from out on the left and there was a scramble in front of the six yard box and the woodwork was hit from close-range, before eventually Adam Senior got the final touch and poked it home to give us the advantage on the stroke of half-time.
Senior’s strike sees his league tally at five now and he remains the club’s top goalscorer so far this campaign.
Half-time: Bristol Rovers 0-1 Barnet FC
The hosts had the first effort on goal in the second 45. Luke Thomas took aim from the edge of the box and forced Slicker to stretch and parry it out for a Rovers’ corner.
There was more to do for Slicker minutes later and this time he had to smother the ball that was played across goal by Kamil Conteh, before the on-running Cavegn could get to it.
We had the chance to double our lead from the penalty spot on the hour mark when Winterburn was brought down into the are. Shelton stepped up to take, but Luke Southwood came down to deny our number 19 from the spot.
As the clock struck 70 minutes, Bristol had a free-kick in the final third out on the left hand side, with Slicker making a huge save from point blank range to deny the hosts the opportunity to equalise.
Taylore Moore then tried his luck next for the hosts and our number 29 dived down to deny the Rovers’ defender.
The Bees’ first change came 15 minutes before full-time, with Oli Hawkins replacing Winterburn.
With five minutes to go, Glover laid the ball off to Senior who was unmarked in the area, sending his strike on target but it was deflected out for a Barnet corner.
The resulting corner from Shelton fell to the feet of Glover on the edge of the area and our number 15 sent the ball soaring into the top left corner to round off an important win on the road.
The result sees Barnet up to 12th in the table, with Slicker securing his ninth clean sheet of the campaign.
Full-time: Bristol Rovers 0-2 Barnet FC
Line-up: Slicker, Collinge, Senior, Ndlovu (Assombalonga, 88’), Kanu, Glover, Winterburn (Hawkins, 75’), Shelton, Tavares, Ofoborh, Kizzi