Reds had played Barnet many times in both the Southern League and Conference with the Bees having much the better of things before our first League Two encounter in 2011/12.
A Friday night home clash just before the New Year was settled – ironically – by Tyrone Barnett as we kept up our promotion push with a narrow 1-0 win.
The return came on a dramatic Easter Monday that had seen manager Steve Evans leave the Reds for Rotherham earlier in the day.
Craig Brewster was therefore in charge and oversaw a torrid first half which in which we were fortunate to only trail to Ricky Holmes’ strike. Defender John Dempster headed home to equalise, then Scott Davies’ long-range deflected effort completed a turnaround. There were many hair-raising moments in the closing stages with goalkeeper Michel Kuipers in inspired form and Barnet denied by the woodwork but Reds held on for a 2-1 win.
Our promotion that year meant we didn’t meet again until after our relegation in 2015, coinciding with the Bees’ return to the Football League.
Our first visit to the new Hive Stadium was heading towards defeat courtesy of Bira Dembele’s brace of headers, but then Mitch Hancox’s speculative long-range effort and a wonderful volley from Jimmy Smith drew us level with 15 minutes left. Alas, a penalty our former striker John Akinde and an unfortunate Lewis Young own goal meant we left North London beaten 4-2.
Barnet completed the double over us on the final day of the season with a 3-0 success and last season’s two games both ended in draws, 1-1 here when Joe McNerney equalised and 2-2 at The Hive, where Rhys Murphy and Enzio Boldewijn were our scorers.
Back in October, Jimmy Smith’s late header sealed a 2-1 Crawley success.
Read more about our previous meetings with Barnet in Saturday's edition of Reds
Pictured: Matt Tubbs, Glenn Wilson and Sergio Torres congratulate Tyrone Barnett after he scored the only goal against the Bees in December 2011.
