More away day blues for the Bees at Meadow Lane as Barnet went down 2-0, but should we be in the mood to look on the bright side, then the second half performance might bode something positive and Albert Adomah looked as if he had found his form, in his best performance for quite a while.
Ian Hendon chose to play Paul Furlong up front with Lee Sawyer playing slightly behind him. Kenny Gillet played at right back in an attempt to nullify County's ploy of attacking down their left flank before cutting inside.
A well worked corner-kick routine led to a ball flashing across the Barnet six yard box in only the second minute and worse was to follow in the fifth minute when a floated delivery from a set-piece fell to Karl Hawley who tucked away the opportunity.
A disputed free kick on the edge of the Barnet box led to the home side taking a 2-0 lead in the 25th minute. Dead ball specialist Ben Davies found the back of the net with his well executed effort and with it the size of the task for Barnet to get something out of the game just got bigger.
From this point onwards Barnet did begin to enjoy periods of possession and were creating chances and getting balls into the box. Just before half-time however Davies hit a strong shot from 30 yards which Jake Cole parried wide.
Early on in the second period John O'Flynn replaced Sawyer as Barnet reverted to a more conventional 4-4-2 formation.
Barnet now took the game to the home side with the home fans getting disgruntled at their side's willingness to concede ground.
It could be that being that the Magpies having a two nil lead to protect were content to concede space in front of them, and also hope that an opportunity to mount breakaways would present themselves.
The stat that echoes loudest and longest from any match is of course the result and on that count Barnet have come away from an away game empty handed and naturally that leads to a large dose of disappointment.
Yet it could not be denied that Barnet passed the ball well on an increasingly hard playing surface which made twists and turns difficult to complete. Some grounds for optimism then, rather like the economy, officially out of recession, but some points needs to be accumulated sooner rather than later.
Ian Hendon post-match was anything but downbeat; he stressed his confidence that his players had the ability and determination to turn the situation round.
The Bees are at Accrington on Tuesday night.
David Bloomfield.