Barnet considerably eased any relegation fears by giving Lincoln City almost a thrashing. At one stage the Bees enjoyed a five goal advantage over the Imps, but two late goals from one-time Barnet transfer target Ben Wright had the effect of slightly removing the lustre from an otherwise excellent all round team performance.
The Bees boss Paul Fairclough declared his teams performance as "fantastic at times" and so it was.
Prior to kick off Barnet's cause was not helped by the news that in form striker Cliff Akurang is out for a considerable period with a hamstring injury and that skipper Ismail Yakubu and Neal Bishop were unfit to start. They were replaced by Sagi Burton who returned to the line-up as captain, Max Porter in midfield and with fit again Adam Birchall being paired up front with Anthony Thomas.
Jason Puncheon, available again after suspension, was named as a substitute.
Albert Adomah showed his intent from the first by delivering a series of dangerous crosses from the right hand side and in the beginning one longed for Akurang to be on the end of these deliveries.
However in the 28th minute Adam Birchall latched onto a ball from Nicky Nicolau, sped away from the defenders and coolly guided the ball under the advancing keeper Alan Marriott to put the Bees one up.
Nine minutes later Adomah was weaving his magic down the wing, then decided to take the ball inside and into the penalty area. Lincoln's Lee Ridley couldn't solve the puzzle and crudely stopped the winger in his tracks. Penalty. Adomah confidently converting the spot kick.
Anthony Thomas was getting into good goalscoring positions but he waited until just before half time before he made his mark. It looked as if the cross into the middle from the right by Birchall was going to go past the goal, but Thomas managed to claw back the ball and the calm himself before finding the back of the net.
With Barnet having a three goal half time lead in the bag Lincoln would need to score early in the second period to have any chance of salvaging anything from this game. But in less than a minute of the restart their plight worsened when Birchall was on hand to deftly steer the ball into the net from a Nicolau centre.
In the 63rd minute Max Porter saw the ball sit up in front of him and from the edge of the penalty area his crisp left foot drive rippled the net to give the home side a deserved five goal lead.
Belatedly Lincoln introduced Wright and his mobility and aerial power gave the Imps a much needed boost. He scored twice in a five minute spell and come the final whistle the celebrations were slightly muted because here was a golden opportunity to post a thumping victory, with a clean sheet as a bonus. Yet given the number of forced changes to the team through injury this was a performance and result deserving of much praise.
Barnet could afford the luxury of being curmudgeonly about conceding two late goals when perhaps the team's focus was less than exemplary; by that stage the points were in bag and both teams knew it. This 5-2 victory shot the Bees three places up the league table to 15th.
The next fixture is an away trip to the Moss Rose when the Bees visit the home of Macclesfield Town.
David Bloomfield
