The
Daggers saw off Barnet with a much better performance today hitting five again
past Barnet.
Mark Bentley (left) scored two headers in the first half and Mark Stein hit a
second half hat trick to complete his 50 for the club in just 86 games played.
In a highly entertaining game, the Daggers seemed more coherent than they had
against Stevenage during midweek and brushed aside a good Barnet team with
relative ease.
With
talk before the match of Paul Terry's imminent transfer to Yeovil Town, there
were a few changes to the side that had played on Tuesday. Tony Roberts
(right) returned in goal with James Pullen dropping to the bench. Chris
Piper was given a start, as were Paul Bruce and Mark Janney, in place of Paul
Terry, Danny Shipp and Jimmy Jackson. Former Dagger, Mark Rooney started
for the visitors.
From
the kick-off, the Daggers had the Bees on the back foot and had the lions' share
of the play. An early chance was cleared off the line by a Barnet defender and a
couple of Paul Bruce (left) free-kicks went sailing over.
With 30 minutes on the clock, the impressive Mark Bentley scored his and the
Daggers' first of the afternoon, finally heading the ball home after Chris
Piper's initial shot from a Mark Janney cross was pushed away and Braithwaite
laid the ball on.
Four
minutes later, Bentley (right) doubled the home side's advantage, heading home
Paul Bruce's near post corner.
With the Daggers looking comfortable at half time, it seemed that the season
had finally been given the kick-start it so sorely needed and the foul mouthed
abuse witnessed on Tuesday was noticeably absent.
In
the 58th minute, Mark Stein (left) scored his first of the match, curling the
ball beautifully into the far corner past Naisbitt following a great through
ball from Paul Bruce to make it 3-0.
Within a minute and Stein had doubled his tally to make it 4-0, slotting the
ball home to the annoyance of Naisbitt whose histrionics should have seen him
shown the red card but the referee who had been exceptionally weak all match
failed to even caution him.
With 70 minutes gone, Barnet managed to strike back to reduce the
deficit. Ashley Vickers attempted a pass back
to Roberts, but he underhit it and Giuliano Grazioli latched onto the ball to
lift it over Roberts from the edge of the area.
With a minute to go plus stoppages, Barnet scored again when Giuliano
Grazioli scored his second from the penalty spot after Lee Matthews (right) was
adjudged to have felled Guy Lopez in the box when the referee fell for his
theatrical dive.
The
Daggers had gone from a comfortable 4-0 lead to 4-2 and, although time was
rapidly running out, there was still time for another scare when Vickers (left)
again underhit a backpass, but this time, Roberts was able to make up the
ground.
With the clock showing 90 minutes, Stein completed his hattrick, heading home
an inch-perfect Paul Bruce cross.
The win sees the Daggers move up to 14th place and must surely give them more
confidence for Saturday's difficult trip to Morecambe.
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