An ultra pragmatist, and ultimately the record books, will simply say that Barnet lost this fixture to Darlington one-nil, and whilst the score line is the statistic with resonance, there is more to say about this match than a simple glance at the result would indicate.
When you get locals and neutrals openly declaring that, "your team deserved something out there today" you know that are not all merely being good hosts. Even the BBC, that paragon of neutrality, had said that Darlington had survived a second half mauling at the hands of their visitors.
A fit again Rob Beckwith returned in goal and continued where he had left off. He looked composed and assured throughout.
Darlington managed to score the games only goal during their best phase of the game. In the 11th minute a long throw into the box was headed clear to the edge of the penalty area only for the unmarked Julian Joachim to first show deft control and then hit a blistering left footed shot high into the net. A quality strike.
Joachim did pose the occasional threat down the Darlington right hand flank. He once skipped past the challenge of Nicky Nicolau and delivered a tempting centre from which Beckwith pulled off a fine save.
Barnet had the perfect opportunity to draw level just after the half hour mark. Cliff Akurang was set fair to score from close range when he was crumbled to the floor by a challenge from Alan White. The award of a penalty was a formality. Most observers then expected referee Joslin to show the culprit a red card, but White inexplicably escaped with a mere yellow. An inappropriate punishment given the crime. Wrights penalty was well saved by David Stockdale who guessed correctly and dived to his right.
Had Barnet scored the penalty and had the opposition been a man light for the remaining hour of play the Bees would have had every chance a securing at least a point.
Early in the second half it looked as if Barnet must equalise. The home sides goal was almost under siege. Wright, attempting to make amends for his penalty miss, was peppering the Quakers goal with shots. Neal Bishop went close after a mazy run took him into the penalty box only for his shot to go just wide of the mark.
Kieron St Aimie came on at half time, replacing Nicolau on the left, and made a few surging runs into dangerous areas as Barnet attacked with two wingers and with substitute Adam Birchall augmenting Akurang up front.
The Barnet manager Paul Fairclough later spoke of his pride in his players performance, but equally it was eating away at him that despite a very sound display his side would travel south empty handed.
In the search for positives one could reflect that Barnet had gone to a team second in the table and were anything but second best.
Crucially Darlington have only conceded eight league goals at home this season and this degree of defensive solidity has given them a platform to mount a serious promotion challenge. At the final whistle the Quakers left the field to much applause, the cheering being for the three points gained, rather than for an electrifying display.
Barnet face improving Brentford at Underhill on Tuesday night, an early opportunity to get the misfortunes of Darlington out of the system.
David Bloomfield.
