A brace from John O'Flynn set up Barnet to record a well-deserved 2-0 victory over Port Vale at Vale Park in which the Bees gave perhaps their most composed and assured performance of the season.
Ian Hendon selected Clovis Kamdjo in central defence with Joe Devera moving back to right-back, Paul Furlong partnering O'Flynn upfront. Dave Livermore started in central midfield, replacing the suspended Mark Hughes.
The game started and finished in bright sunshine, with the most affected referee assistant wearing a peaked cap.
In the opening moments Vale went at full throttle, but Kamdjo and Breen were alert and got in headers to clear the danger.
The Bees took the lead in the seventh minute. Furlong headed the ball into the path of Albert Adomah whose cross was neatly put away by O'Flynn from close range.
The home side occasionally came to life, but their efforts were sporadic, lacked panache, power or penetration.
Just before half time Furlong had an opportunity the give the Bees a two nil lead but his lofted effort was marginally wide of the target.
All areas of the Barnet team were functionally well. The defence looked composed, the midfield linked the play and the forwards looked sharp, alert and dangerous.
Port Vale showed a modicum of enterprise in the opening moments of the second half with Breen conceding a corner to nullify an attack, but slowly and surely the Bees reassumed their superiority with the midfield breaking up the home side's attacks and starting their own forward forays.
Barnet continued to create good goal-scoring chances throughout the half, but Furlong got the ball in the eye from close range and needed to be substituted with over half an hour remaining.
Nicky Deverdics came off the bench and was very effective in the space between the midfield and the front; he got involved and made a valuable contribution, making the midfield barrier that Vale would need to pass through more congested and getting forward when the situation allowed.
In the 77th minute the game as a contest was over when Barnet scored again, prompting an instant mass exodus of home fans; absolutely fabulous to witness if you were wearing black and amber.
Albert Jarrett, now patrolling the right-flank, curled in a left foot centre that found O'Flynn who had got across the defender and deftly guided the ball past the out of tune Chris Martin.
On reflection the points were in the bag from this moment on, but the Bees assumed an ultra-professional stance in the remaining minutes, no wanting to give the home side a glimmer of a hope that there might be a route back into this game. And indeed there wasn't.
A very enjoyable afternoon for the club of 92 fans at this fixture who congoed at the final whistle. In contrast the Port Vale players left the ground each clutching a DVD of their defeat...happy viewing!
After a number of back to back away defeats this victory was clearly welcome, but the focus now quickly moves to the tough task ahead at Dean Court on Tuesday, but if the Bees show the same levels of resilience and ability when they have the ball, and hard work when they do not, literally anything is possible.
David Bloomfield.
