Shrewsbury Town 2 Barnet 2

Ben Herd, centre, stoops to head home Town's last gasp equaliser to grab a point at the Meadow

Call it a "dogs of war" spirit, a stubborn bloody-mindedness or a sheer refusal to accept defeat. Shrewsbury's class of 2005 took another giant step towards winning the acclaim of their fans last night.

Amid a stormy, torrid encounter with Barnet which saw a brace of red cards and penalties at Gay Meadow last night, Town scrambled a point from a seemingly lost cause.

Ben Herd's injury time header from Neil Ashton's long throw averted a potentially momentum-halting home defeat at the hands of Paul Fairclough's impressive visitors.

Trailing 2-1, Town looked down and out 26 minutes from time when Jamie Tolley was dismissed for a late tackle on Nicky Bailey in front of the Riverside.

But the hosts immediately set about repairing the damage, flinging a hitherto impressive Barnet on to the back foot.

Town had already wrestled the upper hand by the time Ismail Yakubu followed Tolley down the tunnel for an awful lunge on Neil Ashton on 80 minutes.

So it was no more than their grit deserved when Herd popped up in the second of five added minutes.

There were few raised eyebrows when the Stockport official made his first match-defining decision, awarding Town an 11th minute penalty after a bursting run from Kevin Sharp had been stopped by a trip from Louis Soares. Colin McMenamin made no mistake from the spot.

Two minutes later, Mathieson was back on centre stage but this time he walked straight into a tunnel of controversy.

There is little doubt that Bailey's shot struck Richard Hope on the hand in the box. But this was certainly a case of ball-to-hand rather than anything more deliberate.

Bailey's sweetly struck spot kick levelled the scores and from there Barnet took the initative.

With Town guilty of standing off their opponents at times, the Bees caught the eye and took the lead when Soares hammered past Joe Hart from a tight angle.