And so to the last match of the season. Perhaps even the last ever match to played at Millmooor as Rotherham contemplate moving their operations to the nearby Don Valley Stadium.
The pitch was watered before the match, leaving a large puddle in Lee Harrison's goalmouth for most of the first half. The Bees line up was unchanged from last weeks apart from the more orthodox right back Jordan Parkes replacing the injured Ashley Carew.
A new chairman was introduced to the Rotherham fans before the kick off. He spoke of a new era about to begin. This galvanised the Millers fans who, after suffering a 10 points deduction as a penalty for financial mis management, were on the look out for a saviour and gave their team unquestioning support throughout the game.
Their support was so unquestioned that for large swathes of the match it went largely unnoticed that the visitors were in almost complete control.
Yet after 8 minutes a Dale Tonge shot was not clearly efficiently cleared and from an angle Jamie Green hit a rasping shot past Lee Harrison.
Barnet went in search of an equaliser, and either the home side were happy to concede possession and space, or Barnet pressed the visitors back deep into their own half. Much of the rest of the half was played in the Millers half, yet the home side did once break out and Mark Hudson could have doubled the home side's advantage on 33 minutes, but he miscued his effort and the ball went high and wide.
Just before the end of the half Jason Puncheon created a chance for himself, his effort being well saved by the veteran Andy Warrington, and he did well again to deal with Albert Adomah's follow up.
Warrington was again on hand to save the day for the Millers when after a mazy run by Adomah down the right, through a forest of defenders, his deflected strike on goal was acrobatically kept out.
Jamie Oliver, in a Rotherham shirt, was paraded before the crowd at half time for a reason that was hard to fathom, other than the vague promise of a steak sandwich after the game, but the sight of a celebrity again raised the spirits of the crowd, which prompted them again to cheer and root for their team in the second half. Another 45 minutes in which they played second fiddle to the Bees, who simply controlled much of the proceedings. The Millers were simply being out passed.
Adomah had another effort somehow kept out, a good deep cross from Nicky Nicolau deserved to be rewarded with a goal ward header and a trademark drift inside from the right flank by Puncheon followed by a left foot shot went agonisingly wide
However Jamie Yates for the Millers hit a post moments after coming on as a sub, but a 2-0 scoreline in favour of the home side would have been a cruel joke.
Post match Paul Fairclough found much to admire in his teams display. He knows that come the crunch "it's all about putting the ball in back of the net", but he claimed to have seem so many positives in his teams display against a team, that for their points deduction, would have been promotion contenders.
And so the Bees finish in the top half of the table, in 12th spot. They can look down on most teams in the table and whilst a play off spot proved to by five places beyond their grasp this time around, it is an ambition that is anything but out of sight.
David Bloomfield.
