Barnet entertain Southall FC at The Hive in practice matches

You can find reports from all three games, below.

Game 1 – 1-1

Ricardo Santos’ header secures Barnet a 1-1 draw in the first game of three against Southall FC.

The visitors got off to a flying start during the opening encounters and earned a penalty just three minutes into the game. Adam Louth made no mistake to give Southall an early lead.

The Bees replied instantly and were almost on level terms through Shaquile Coulthirst. Callum Reynolds’ raking cross-field pass found Antonis Vasiliou baring down on the goalkeeper, though his chipped attempt was cleared only as far as Coulthirst who smashed against the crossbar from the edge of the box.

As the game hit the halfway stage, Barnet made their pressure count as Santos brought his side back on level terms. The stately centre-half rose highest from a Coulthirst corner to steer beyond the helpless Southall ‘keeper.

Simeon Akinola was next to go close as he latched onto a long ball, though his chipped effort dropped just wide of the post before Mo Bettamer had a long-range effort dragged the wrong side of the near-stick.

For all of their second-half dominance, The Bees were held to a 1-1 draw.

Team: Loach, Trialist A, Santos, Reynolds, Box, Bettamer, Boucaud, Elito, Vasiliou, Akinola, Coulthirst.

Game 2 – 0-0

Barnet played out a goalless draw in the second game of the day.

The Bees started on the front foot and were almost ahead within a couple of minutes through Coulthirst. Trialist B’s diagonal pass was taken down brilliantly by Akinola who cut back to Shaq, however, his left-footed effort missed just left of the near post.

Southall’s first opening of the game came with 10 minutes on the clock; however, Scott Loach was on hand to comfortably collect the Southall forward’s strike.

At the halfway stage, Darren Currie made a host of changes as a refreshed 11 took to the field.

Trialist D got his foot on the ball and almost fashioned an opening, though his through ball had just too much power for an on-rushing Jack Barham.

Mauro Vilhete created the best chance of the game having jinked past four of the Southall defenders, only to smash high of the goal from the edge of the box. Minutes later, he leapt highest to meet a powerful cross, though his effort came to the same outcome.

Matrevics was on-hand, literally, to keep out Southall towards the tail-end of the game. The Southall forward’s strike looked destined for the corner only for the Latvian to parry wide and away from danger, proving the last action of the second 30-minute game

Team: Loach (Matrevics, 15), Trialist B, Santos (Hernandez, 15), Reynolds (Sweeney, 15), Trialist C, Boucaud (Vilhete, 15), Elito (H. Taylor, 15), Akinola (Sparkes, 15), Trialist D, Vasiliou (Barham, 15) Coulthirst (Trialist E, 6’).

Game 3 – 3-0

Roy Syla, Dan Sparkes and Trialist F all find the net as Barnet convincingly beat Southall in the final game of the day.

Syla lit up what was uneventful first 10 minutes with a brilliant strike from 20-yards to give Barnet the lead. The young midfielder picked up early, before setting his sights and arrowing into the bottom corner beyond the Southall ‘keeper.

Trialist F had a fantastic chance to double the Bees’ lead, though his close-range effort was straight at the Southall stopper. Trialist F then converted after some brilliant work from Barham on the right-hand side, though the linesman’s flag was raised to disallow the goal.

Barham the creator once again, fired across the six-yard box as Sparkes smashed home from a couple of yards to double Barnet’s lead with just over ten minutes to play – no linesman’s flag this time.

At the heart of the action once again, Barham almost added a third. The forward neatly directed a header toward the far post, only for the Southall ‘keeper to acrobatically steer around the post.

Syla almost had his second of the game in the last knockings, though his strike, one-on-one with the ‘keeper, was well wide.

Trialist F put the cherry on top of a fantastic team performance, as he made no mistake to dispatch beyond the Southall stopper, putting the Bees three goals to the good.

Team: Matrevics, Johnson, Alexander, Hernandez, Sweeney, H. Taylor, Sparkes, Syla, Barham, Trialist F, Vilhete.