Dean Howell rounds the keeper before firing Town in front
HalifaxTown 2 Barnet 3 NOT for the first time in recent seasons HalifaxTown pressed the self-destruct button to let a winning position slip through their hands.
When they led 2-0 at the break they were heading for their second successive home win of the campaign.
By the final whistle they looked a well-beaten side having failed to reproduce their first half form in the second 45 minutes.
They looked in hardly any trouble at all as they took control of proceedings from the kick off with the midfield bossing the game, the defence comfortable and the strikers in good form.
They could have had more than the two goals scored by Dean Howell and Mark Monington and in the end they will have wished they had them.
It was not a case of Barnet stepping up their game - they played to the same pattern of play throughout.
Town simply failed to replicate the first half performance in the second period as midfield battles were lost, the defence became hesitant and the strikers were unable to hold on to the ball.
And it was almost inevitable that Guiliano Grazioli, the scourge of Halifax in recent seasons, should whack in the winner 21 minutes from the end.
Town had the ball in the net after just two minutes when Monington fired home a Howell free-kick, only to be denied by the linesman's flag.
Four minutes later, Howell's pace took him to the by-line and only the intervention of Simon Clist prevented Steve Haslam from capitalising on a superb cross.
Monington was deemed to be offside again in the 12th minute as he fired home with the help of a deflection off a defender.
And moments later Midgley was unlucky not to fashion an opening after controlling a Haslam pass on his chest 10 yards out.
Barnet had their moments at the other end with Ben Strevens heading over from 10 yards and Richard Graham firing into the side netting from a Liam Hatch flick.
But the Shaymen thoroughly deserved to take the lead with a stunning goal in the 24th minute. Howell nipped in to win the ball in midfield and rolled it forward to Ryan Sugden.
Howell met the striker's return pass at speed and he raced into the area and rounded the keeper before firing home.
Scott Willis hammered a shot inches wide from the edge of the area in the 27th minute and, after Haslam had picked out Sugden inside the area, the ball was laid off to Midgley who also failed to hit the target.
Sugden was forced to head behind from a Barnet corner and Grazioli somehow managed to tap a shot into Dunbavin's arms.
But the game looked to have swung firmly Halifax's way 10 minutes before the break when they added a second goal.
It was a case of third time lucky for Monington who latched onto another Howell free kick. The centre back brought the ball down on his chest and, after another touch, forced it under the keeper's body from eight yards.
That really ought to have been that with Town coasting to a second successive home win. But they never got going at all at the start of the second half and were dealt a blow in the 50th minute when Barnet pulled a goal back.
Richard Graham was given too much room to cross the ball from the left and Haslam sliced his attempted clearance over Dunbavin's head and in at the far post.
After his red card seven days earlier at Tamworth, Haslam must be wondering what he has done wrong. Monington almost restored Town's two-goal cushion with a 30-yard volley that flew narrowly wide.
And had that gone in the confidence they showed in the first half might have returned.
As it was, Barnet made all the running with Hatch somehow missing the target from eight yards before making amends midway through the second half.
Matt Doughty and Howell failed to clear the ball on the edge of the area and Hatch fired home.
If that was not painful enough, within a minute the Bees were ahead as Grazioli got the better of Denny Ingram and hammered a shot over Dunbavin's head from 35 yards.
Halifax had no response and Dwayne Lee might have added a fourth for the visitors with 15 minutes remaining, but he was unable to hit the target.
Foster went closest to salvaging a draw for Town four minutes from the end when he latched into a Howell pass, but his shot flew narrowly wide of the right-hand post.
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