A second half red card for Tyler French proved to be the turning point on Easter Monday, with Barnet running out 3-1 winners over Sutton United.
The Bees broke the deadlock after eight minutes when Callum Stead’s cross was misjudged by Kain Adom, allowing Mark Shelton to pounce and drill home the opener, but should have been given the chance to equalise moments later when Lewis Simper was hauled down in the box by Owen Evans, only to see the controversially referee unmoved.
However, Sutton continued to compete well, and did eventually peg Barnet back on the half-hour mark when Ben Coker was penalised for a handball in the penalty area, after Adom and Ashley Nadesan had nicely combined to rapidly counter attack. This gave Siju Odelusi the opportunity to level things up from the spot, and he made no mistake to send the two sides into the break all square.
A moment of controversy would prove to be the turning point at the start of the second half though, with French being shown red after a 50/50 duel with Lee Ndlovu caused the Bees’ striker to go to ground, and to make matters worse, the incident took place inside the penalty area, with Shelton adding his second of the afternoon from the spot.
Despite their man advantage Sutton largely competed throughout the latter stages of the match, but Ade Oluwu headed home a deep cross from the right with eight minutes to go, condemning the U’s to defeat at the end of the Easter period.
Defeat at the VBS Community Stadium means Steve Morison’s side drop to 14th in the Vanarama National League table, and will be looking to bounce back on Saturday with their final away game of the season, visiting Yeovil Town.
One change to the team that drew with Aldershot Town on Good Friday saw Hayden Muller replace Harry Ransom in the heart of defence, looking to combat Barnet’s frontline.
Barnet are surely the champions-elect, and showed their quality from the off, and perhaps should have gone in front after three minutes. Rhys Browne twisted inside and out of Ryan Jackson before bending a ball towards the far post, where Ndlovu headed inches wide of the near post.
The Bees almost rued this miss moments later, with Simper looking to score his third goal in as many games from outside the box when he tried his luck with a powerful drive, and forced Evans into a crucial low stop.
However, Barnet drew first blood soon after when Stead’s cross from the right was somehow missed by Adom, and subsequently found its way through to Shelton who fired a sweetly struck volley past Jack Sims inside the opening ten minutes.
Sutton had shown a good account of themselves against the league leader so far though, and should have levelled almost immediately, with Evans caught in some controversy.
Oluwu had stolen the ball from Nadesan but misjudged the position of Simper, who pounced on his heavy touch and raced towards goal, forcing Evans to leave his penalty area. After initially going down under a sliding challenge outside the box, Simper recovered well to win the ball back and make his way into the penalty area, where he went down under a blatant foul from Evans only to see the referee somehow wave away the appeals, with Steve Morison subsequently being booked in the aftermath.
A fairly stagnant period followed as Sutton competed well, and limited Barnet to few clear cut chances, although Stead nearly doubled their advantage when he struck inches wide from close range, only to see the offside flag go up anyway, before Shelton saw an effort cleared off the line soon after.
Barnet would soon be shellshocked, however, with their hopes of finally sealing the National League title being put on the backburner once again as Sutton were awarded the chance to draw level on the half-hour mark.
Adom rapidly broke away and did well to bypass Barnet’s backline before cutting the ball back to Nadesan, who’s cross hit Coker’s hand and gave the referee no choice but to point to the spot this time, with Odelusi calmly dispatching from 12-yards.
The Bees would have to start again from square one, although Sutton almost stole the lead moments before the interval when Simper tried his luck from the halfway line. His effort had plenty of momentum and almost dipped under the crossbar to give the U’s a spectacular advantage, but it wasn’t to be, and thus sent the two sides into the break level.
Barnet will have been keen to restore their advantage early on, and almost replicated the start to the first half with a chance after just two minutes, as Stead produced a neat backheel to find the outside run of Shelton, who picked his spot before dragging his effort wide of the target.
The Bees did soon go back in front though, with referee James Bancroft at the centre of controversy once again. A long throw-in from the right dropped in the six-yard box towards Ndlovu, who seemed to go down fairly easily under the challenge of French, but the referee opted to award a spot-kick, while showing French a red card to add salt to the wounds.
Despite their appeals, Sutton were down to ten men, and a goal down as well with Shelton burying his spot-kick with 35 minutes to go.
In order to try and maintain control, Ransom was introduced in place of Jackson as Morison favoured a return to a back three formation, with Adom and Nana Boateng tasked with holding down the flanks, although the latter was soon withdrawn himself in favour of top scorer Will Davies, with the return of Josh Coley following.
The Bees would look to make use of their man advantage, with Odelusi needing to be called into action to clear a low Browne cross from close range, and Barnet did soon add a third goal when Oluwu headed Coker’s cross into the top corner to cement the three points.
Sutton did produce a late push to pull a goal back though, with Odelusi teeing up Nadesan who saw a powerful volley blocked, before Simper fired over the crossbar, and eight minutes of added time then afforded the U’s another opportunity to reduce the deficit.
It would be too little, too late though, and Barnet did have one more chance to score in the final minute of stoppage time when Stead was denied by Sims, but nonetheless had done enough to seal a crucial three points.
Sutton United: Sims; French, Odelusi, Simper, Muller, Boateng (Davies 67’), Wadham, Jackson (Ransom 55’), Nadesan (Sandat 85’), Topallaj, Adom (Coley 76’)
Barnet: Evans; Coker (Cropper 90+3’), Collinge, Browne (90+7’), Ndlovu (Francis 87’), Stead, Glover, Hartigan, Shelton (Clifford 90+2’), Oluwu, Tavares
Photo Credit: Paul Loughlin
