Bees put up fight against Gunners

6:19pm Saturday 16th July 2005

Barnet 1 Arsenal 4 . . .

Barnet manager Paul Fairclough was full of praise for his players after they put in a spirited performance against their Premiership neighbours at Underhill this afternoon.

The Gunners created most of the chances and could have had more, but the Bees also gave the Arsenal rearguard much to think about and thoroughly deserved their second-half consolation from Dean Sinclair.

Fairclough said: "There were some big performances out there. Dean Sinclair was as good as any on the pitch."

And that is a compliment when you have the likes of Henry, Pires, Bergkamp and Reyes in the opposition line-up.

Arsenal took the lead within two minutes through new signing Hleb. Henry then slammed home a penalty after Reyes had been brought down before Bergkamp scored the goal of the game, a sweet curling effort from the edge of the box that found the top corner. Pires then set up Justin Hoyte for a fourth.

Fairclough said: "I was disappointed at half-time. We showed them too much respect and we talked about that.

"We were not shutting them down.

"When we got amongst them and made our tackles, it was a different story."

Though Arsenal took off their big guns at the interval, Barnet have to be praised for their second-half performance.

They created some good openings and passed the ball confidently.

And it was no surprise when they got their reward on 75 minutes, the excellent Sinclair, who ran his socks off, latching on to a Dwane Lee ball and drilling a shot into the corner with his left foot.

The Gunners did carve out a number of second-half openings, but it was the Bees who finished the stronger.

Fairclough said: "It was a great run-out for us. It was all about the supporters getting the chance to look at Premiership footballers. It was a terrific day."

Attendance: 5,037.

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