This victory at Underhill today takes Barnet to within two points of the benchmark of 50 points and further adds to the woes of bottom placed Wrexham.
Skipper Ismail Yakubu was deemed fit on Friday and resumed his partnership with Sagi Burton in central defence and it was his glancing header, late in the first half, that many observers, including Wrexham's manager Brian Little, later deemed as the defining moment of the match.
It was certainly one of the better moments of the first period, a half when neither side was at their best and many passes were being misplaced. The swirling wind hardly helping matters.
The tone was set when a mistake by Wrexham from the kick off allowed Anthony Thomas time and space to advance towards the visitors goal. His shot tested the keeper, who held onto the ball at the second attempt.
Albert Adomah as usual was creating havoc whenever he was on the ball. His pace, control and directness makes it appear as if a goal is never far away.
As the half wore on the Bees increasingly had the upper hand with both Burton and Adomah going close. In time added on Yakubu headed in a Nicky Nicolau free kick, "a training ground move" Bees boss Paul Fairclough described it post match.
Brian Little later concluded that the goal "through out of the window" his half time team talk. But his view that prior to the goal his team were "cruising" would probably find little favour this side of the border.
Just six minutes into the second half Barnet had a two goal advantage when from a Nicolau cross that was headed on by Adomah, Thomas found the net with an audacious over head kick.
Four minutes later a Drew Broughton header that went in off a post gave Wrexham hope that all was not lost. Barnet however were to quickly reassert their second half superiority just seven minutes later. A fine pass from Josh Wright into Thomas was controlled and the ball was in turn put into the path of Nicolau. His low shot found the corner of the net despite the despairing lunge by the Wrexham keeper Gavin Ward.
The goals kept on coming with Wrexham showing commendable resilience to pull themselves back into the match. In the 66th minute defender Simon Spender capitalised on a defensive error to strike the ball cleanly past the Bees keeper Lee Harrison.
Keiron St Aimie replaced Thomas late on and with his very first touch, a powerful header from a corner, he almost extended the Bees lead forcing Ward to tip the ball over.
From the resulting corner St Aimie then struck a fierce shot against a post. Playing as a central striker, rather than out wide, he suggested that he might provide Paul Fairclough with another option up front. He certainly has the physique, pace and power to play this role and at only 18 years of age he has plenty of time to develop.
After the match Paul Fairclough confessed that defensively his team are not looking as solid as they have at some times during the season. Perversely, however, the problem of scoring goals that looked so very acute just a few weeks ago seems at the moment to be less of a pressing issue.
The Barnet manager also reported that a few players that played today picked up knocks that would likely make them unavailable for the home game against Darlington on Tuesday.
David Bloomfield
