Barnet 1–4 Oldham Athletic: The Latics sting the Bees with a strong four.
At the Hive London, Barnet suffered their third straight league loss, falling to Micky Mellon’s Oldham Athletic 4-1.
Barnet hosted 11th-place Oldham on home ground in an attempt to get back to winning ways after dropping their last two league games.
Even though the home team had gotten off to a strong start, Laurie Walker’s professional foul inside the penalty area denied Mike Fondop a clear opportunity to score.
Even though James Norwood’s originally given red card was later reduced to a yellow one, he still scored the first goal with a sure penalty kick into the upper right corner.
Idris Kanu’s incredible solo effort in slamming past two Latics shirts and earning a penalty of his own helped the Bees tie the score in the second half. In an attempt to equalize, Harry Pritchard stepped up and blasted it past Mat Hudson.
The lead was short lived as Norwood and Fondop combined, with the latter regaining the lead with an incredible finish.
A worn-out and outnumbered Bees defense was exploited by Norwood, who drove the ball past Walker and a defenseless Ade Oluwo and into an empty net.
The match was not quite over until Norwood found substitute Hallam Hope open in front of goal, feeding it past Walker once more to send the 234 Latics supporters home happy.
The weekend’s home matchup against Ebbsfleet United will see the visitors move up to 10th place. If they defeat Dennis Kutrieb’s team, they might advance to the postseason.
Even though Barnet is still in second place, they still have a lot of work ahead of them, starting with a challenging away game against Wealdstone, their rivals. Being familiar with Stuart Maynard & Wealdstone, Dean Brennan will be looking to defeat the Stones and win three straight.
The match’s narrative:
Brennan made four changes to the Gateshead losing team. Gary Hooper, an experienced player, and Callum Stead, an additional attacking reinforcement, entered the game. Finley Potter and Zak Brunt were likewise favored over Jerome Okimo and Dale Gorman.
Mellon, meanwhile, selected an identical lineup to the one that defeated Woking the previous weekend.
But minutes into the game, Callum Stead fired a shot that went just wide of the Oldham goal, giving the hosts the early advantage.
Although Idris Kanu and Nicke Kabamba worked well together to create early opportunities for the Bees, Brennan’s team was unable to score past Mat Hudson.
Against the run of play, the visitors scored the first goal. Mike Fondop’s hard press caused Okimo and Laurie Walker to miscommunicate at the back, which allowed the Oldham forward to barrel into an empty net.
Then, before Fondop could slide the ball into the goal, Barnet’s number one brought him down. This caused referee Paul Johnson to point to the spot and give Walker a straight red card.
Johnson, however, only awarded a yellow card for the last-man foul committed in the penalty area because of the double-jeopardy rule.
James Norwood, a former Barnsley forward, scored the next penalty, sending the fervent Latics supporters into a frenzy with his rocket shot into the top-right corner.
When Fondop forced Walker into a diving stop to keep Oldham from winning the game, the visitors began to exert more control over the game.
Nathan Sheron’s half-volley was set up by Norwood and Devarn Green’s superb one-touch link-up play, but the 26-year-old was unable to divert the attempt on goal, even though Mellon’s team may have already taken the lead at the break.
The hosts were not going down without a fight, even after saying that. Kabamba’s goal from an offside position was chalked off for the Bees, demonstrating that Barnet was still relevant.
Nearing halftime, there was a loud cry for a penalty kick as Stead broke free down the right wing and cleverly cut back, only to have his shot cleverly blocked by his defender. However, the referee judged there wasn’t enough contact.
Deep into injury time, Kanu danced past two Oldham defenders to give the Bees one last chance. Gorman was found with a cross to the far post. The Barnet captain placed the ball in the path of Gary Hooper, but a Latics defender deflected the incredible opportunity out of the goal.
Second Half:
But Barnet was able to find a gap for the equalizer using a similar pattern. Idris Kanu stunned the two defenders who were assigned to mark him once more by swerving into the box, cutting skillfully to his right foot, and being taken down in the process.
Paul Johnson decided to point to the spot this time, which allowed Harry Pritchard to forcefully kick the penalty into the top-left corner and put the Bees back in the game.
It was all over in four minutes for the visitors. Oldham was able to play on another fast counter after a ball was sent through to Norwood. In order to regain the lead, the 33-year-old attempted a through pass into Fondop. When Oluwo failed to stop the pass, the Latics’ number nine spectacularly lofted the ball into the roof of the net.
When Norwood was played in one-on-one with Ade Oluwo again, warning signs began to appear for the hosts. Nevertheless, this time, the 23-year-old was able to divert him, even though the offside flag was raised.
Fifteen minutes remained in regular time when Norwood faced another forced long ball. Oluwo failed to find Oldham’s talisman this time, and the Englishman was able to take the ball past Walker for a simple finish into the back of an empty net.
As if things couldn’t get any worse for the home team, Norwood found a back route past a worn-out and demoralized Bees defense to give the Latics a fourth goal on minute ninety. He played the ball into the hands of the unselfish Hallam Hope, who calmly finished and wheeled off to join the 234 travelling fans in celebration.
What can only be called a surrender explained yet another disappointing outcome for the Bees and demonstrated that, even though they had a slow start to the season, Oldham might be a contender by the end of April.
Player of the match:
Without a doubt, the 33-year-old still has it. With two goals and two assists, the forward put on an outstanding display. He currently has an amazing 11 goals in the league, and he will be essential to Oldham’s success if they want to move up the standings.
In addition to his ability to score goals, his off-the-ball play allowed the Latics to exert pressure and wear down the Barnet defense whenever they went on the attack.
