Barnet cruised to a 3-0 victory here at Underhill today by virtue of a second half performance that was in stark contrast to a rather lack lustre first 45 minutes.

Barnet lined up with the starting eleven that took the field at Valley Parade in midweek where the Bees had earned a creditable draw.

Adam Birchall with a brace and Cliff Akurang were the goalscorers that shook Bury to the core, they had no answer to the swift inter passing of the Bees, but it was the visitors who came closet to scoring in the opening exchanges of the first half.

Elliott Bennett and Nicky Adams both had headed efforts that had Lee Harrison scrambling across his goal, but goal mouth incidents, indeed any incidents, were few and far between during the first 45 minutes.

There were a few moments of endeavour however, a neat 1-2 between Jason Puncheon and Nicky Nicolau down the left flank saw the Bees full back cross to the far post where Albert Adomah headed into the side netting.

Indications that this half would be different were evident when early in the second half Anthony Thomas manufactured a great opportunity for himself only for his effort to go wide of the target.

Puncheon was delivering a series of quality crosses from the left and one such delivery saw Birchall flick the ball narrowly off target. But moments later, in the 57th minute Birchall was on hand to deftly steer the ball past the advancing Jim Provett from a Neal Bishop through ball.

In the 68th the Bees doubled their lead when a Cliff Akurang cross was not adequately dealt with and it was Birchall who reacted first to stroke the ball into the net.

Bury rarely threatened, although it was apparent that in Andy Bishop Bury they had a capable forward; fortunately for Barnet he had to forage alone as he was given little assistance by his team mates.

Max Porter is central midfield was again outstanding. Tenacious in the tackle and able to play the simple pass, which is anything but, he helped continue or initiate many of Barnet's better attacks.

When Lee Harrison was receiving treatment, some wags in the crowd, who had noted the impressive range of goalkeeping skills displayed by the mascot in the pre-match warm up, were calling for him to make his Barnet debut: "Bring on the mascot!"

A fine run out of defence by Joe Devera, in the 84th minute and an equally fine pass in to Adam Birchall looked as if it would result in a hat trick for the Bees striker. His effort was deflected by the keeper into the path of Akurang who made no mistake and scored his 6th goal of the campaign, (to which you could add his 10 in the Conference).

Post match Paul Fairclough indicated that at half time he had pointed out to the players that if each and every one of them were able to raise their game by a fraction, it would likely be enough to swing the game in the Bee's favour.

To the press he spoke of how if a steam locomotive engine was not at the right temperature it would not move an inch, but that once 212 degrees of heat was being generated the momentum of such an engine would almost be unstoppable.

The mode of transport taken by the Bury team on their journey north is at present unknown.

Barnet will be travelling by coach to Spotland on this Tuesday full of hope of playing Rochdale.

David Bloomfield