Boxing Day blow for Bees
3:46pm Sunday 26th December 2004
Stevenage Borough 2 Barnet 1 . . .
Barnet saw their unbeaten away record end in controversial fashion at Broadhall Way this afternoon.
The Bees were forced to play the second half with ten men when Dwane Lee was red-carded on the stroke of half-time.
And they were finally finished off by a dubious 63rd-minute penalty after Giuliano Grazioli had clawed them back in it with a goal out of the blue.
Barnet manager Paul Fairclough said he had no idea why Stevenage were awarded the crucial spot kick. Damian Batt jumped with George Boyd and the referee, after much hesitation, pointed to the spot.
Fairclough said: "I watched the reaction of the ref and he had ten seconds of thinking time after he thought he saw something.
"I thought it was a foul on our player."
Dino Maamria sent Scott Tynan the wrong way to put Stevenage back in front.
And despite a spirited late rally from ten-man Barnet, they were unable to come back again.
All three goals came within a frantic five-minute spell. Borough took the lead on 58 minutes when a Jon Brady drive from distance was helped on by Anthony Elding.
But two minutes later a Simon Clist free-kick created an almighty scramble in the home box and Grazioli found a gap between keeper and post to equalise from close range.
Stevenage had the better of the first half but Barnet seemed to have weathered the early storm. Tynan was forced to pull off two good saves in the opening exchanges. Within three minutes the young keeper had to block a close-range Elding effort and then pushed over a rasping drive from Dannie Bulman.
Liam Hatch had Barnet's best chances. Two minutes before the interval, he chipped just wide across goal after Dean Sinclair had slipped him through following a forceful run by Ian Hendon.
But within a minute, Lee was ruled to have lashed out at Boyd after the ball had gone and the referee produced a straight red.
It gave Barnet an uphill task after the break, though Fairclough praised his players' "heroic" efforts.
He added: "This is a new situation for us. We have not lost two on the trot.
"We are being tested at the moment and we have to respond."
BARNET (4-4-2): Tynan; Batt, Hendon, Yakubu, Clist; Bailey, Lee, Sinclair, Strevens; Hatch, Grazioli. Subs not used: Gore, Champion, Roache, Lopez, McBean.
Attendance: 4,307.
Best Bee: Damian Batt.