Performance against Port Vale

[cozytheref]

I was not at the game against Port Vale as i live in Australia now
Just watched the highlights on Barnet Player and it seems we were all over them, or at least the better side.
Obviously BP is only a snapshot of the game with only 4 minutes of highlights, but if we play like that for the rest of the season surely we will get out of trouble.
PV are top but looks like we made them look very ordinary.
Those at the game, am i wrong or right?

[PlanBee]

Greetings from another Australia based Bee.

[cozytheref]

Where are you based Planbee?

[PlanBee]

Close to Essendon in Melbourne. Where abouts are you?

[jamiefrbees]

You are right..

but for one hairy moment in the first half, which I think came from Byrne losing possession, the first half (or even first 65 minutes) were the most accomplished and entertaining I have seen from a Barnet side since I was old enough to see above the railings on the north terrace.

We made Port Vale look like Blue Square North at best. They were all getting incredibly frustrated and resorting to long range wayward strikes (and that's the few occasions they could get near the ball - there really weren't many). Hughes was falling over, Pope was utterly anonymous.

What was most good to see was the fact that we were truly playing as a team.
You would have expected Vale to sort things out at half time and work out where they were going wrong. But unlike past seasons when they would have realised all the damage is coming from Marshall/ McLeod and doubled up on them, every single player was a dangerous link by the sheer speed and fluidity with which we were knocking the ball around. Vale had no answers whatsoever. I still don't know how we didn't manage to score.

For me the one turning point in the game was when Davids lost his cool with the linesman after being elbowed. The biggest change in the team and players recently has been their focus and unwaivering self-belief - this is clearly something instilled by the Davids mentality. However when he did lose his cool and fly off the handle it had an unnerving effect on the rest of the side and only then did Port Vale get a slight handle on the game for the final 20 mins.

Otherwise it was relentless one way traffic with about 16 half chances, and 3 clear cut ones. John Oster missing the easiest in my opinion, when all he needed to do was slot it past the keeper he toe poked it and it was tipped over. Having said that he was rightly man of the match along-side Davids and Stephens. (Stephens had his name on every challenge.)

Long may it continue.

[cozytheref]

Thanks jamiebee for the in depth review.
Was that elbow the one in the area from the throw in? Looked like he stayed down for a while then got up as ball broke on the other side.

[cozytheref]

Planbee I am in Brisbane mate

[Mikel Bee]

Thanks jamiebee for the in depth review.
Was that elbow the one in the area from the throw in? Looked like he stayed down for a while then got up as ball broke on the other side.

He stayed down for quite a while then the ref stopped play just as we were forming an attack. We were awarded a drop ball which Vale thought we were going to roll back to their keeper. Hyde had other ideas and came very close to scoring, much to the fury of the Vale fans.

[Tuesds]

Micky Adams had it right, and credit to him for being honest:

"Barnet were fantastic, they were better than us"