Barnet again fielded a strong looking side in this pre season friendly against Harlow Town and eventually ran out comfortable 4-1 winners against the Hawks of the Isthmian Premier League.

Joe Devera and Ashley Carew did not make the starting line up, both being rested as a precautionary measure with slight hamstring niggles.

From a somewhat generous penalty decision Adam Birchall gave the Bees an early lead with a well executed spot kick, but Harlow, in the first half in particular, gave Barnet just the sort of test they were looking for in their build up to the season.

The home side were naturally were not as comfortable on the ball as the Bees or as cohesive in their play, but they did work hard to deny their opponents time and space and their reward duly came when Danny Chapman equalised with a bullet header from close range.

The Bees regained their lead just before half time when an acrobatic effort from Albert Adomah elicited generous applause from the home supporters.

Danny Hart was introduced at half time; he kept a steady flow of quality crosses coming over from the wing, worked hard and displayed a great enthusiasm for the game.

Nicky Deverdics entered the fray midway through the second half. The left footer made a favourable impression in central midfield and distributed the ball with some guile.

Luke Medley dispatched an opportunity with a cool, composed finish to extend Barnet's advantage before, almost with the final touch of the game, a rocket of a shot from all of 35 yards from the boot of Danny Hart again prompted the Harlow fans to applaud a Barnet player.

Post match Bees boss Paul Fairclough was to express the view that Harlow had provided just the kind of opposition he was looking in that they had been determined opponents, not sat back, and in actual fact provided opposition more akin to that found in a League fixture in terms of the intensity of their approach.

David Bloomfield