Originally Posted by Phil Whalley
Vintage, gutsy Stanley for the last half hour, but didn’t look too good until Edwards’ equaliser. We were definitely second-best in the first-half, although Kee should have scored after being put through superbly by Turner, but he blazed over. It was a poor touch by Deano that led to their pen, no real arguments there, and we were glad to get to half-time just the one down.
Coley then made a big call and got it right by taking off Turner and shoring up the central midfield with Ryan. Chris was finding it tough against Lockwood, who looked solid at left-back. It still took us a while to get going after the break. The plan seemed to be for Ryan, Joyce and Proccy to break it up in the middle, and for Kee and Symes to take up wider positions than normal, holding the ball up while the midfield – especially Ryan – got up to support. Coley also wisely didn’t ask the full-backs to do too much overlapping as Barnet were dangerous down the flanks, with both Deano and Tom Lees suffering the odd roasting.
So it wasn’t an overly-attacking set-up in the second-half, the difference I think was in the extra industry that Ryan brought at the heart of the action. It gave Joyce a bit more time on the ball, and his passing was excellent. We then enjoyed the sight of Stanley slowly but surely pushing the oppo back until Bouza became, by and large, a spectator. The equaliser was well-deserved, as it had followed a couple of chances created by long balls out wide to Kee and Symes, both put wide. A decent corner in was met by a Stanley head and it was one of those unstoppable looping headers into the corner. No idea who scored, too busy going mental.
The question now was whether Stanley could continue to press or whether Barnet would come back. They did skim a couple of dangerous low balls across the box, courtesy of the excellent Adomah, that we scrambled away before we won the pen. Difficult to say whether it was deserved, there was contact, but the ref was well-positioned, so who am I to argue? Phil’s pen wasn’t disastrously bad, low to the keeper’s right, but he got down well and pushed it around the post. We were cussing like buggery then, thinking that the chance to win was gone, but Stanley kept on pushing, and some good running off the ball from Symes gave Kee a bit of room on the edge of the box, and he fairly slammed the ball home, a real beauty of a finish.
Barnet had one last chance that should have brought the equaliser but their man headed wide at the far post when unmarked, but that was our only let-off. In sum, a battling, grinding performance more than anything else, not a great deal of passing football, but we kept possession much better in the second half and used the long ball well. Joyce was probably the pick of our players, alongside Kempo, who won everything in the air.
Well done to Coley and the lads.
Have a good evening everyone
Phil
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