Five of the best as York unleash their sting on a deflated Bees side

By Aaron Jaffe 

York City made sure to leave their sting on a mediocre Barnet, who have struggled since their purple patch at the start of the season that felt like an eternity ago.

It was five in total by John Askey’s side, who have introduced themselves to the rest of the Vanarama National League with a bang. Maz Khouyar got things started after a lengthy delay due to a lack of medical staff at the Hive Stadium. He slid in Lenell John-Lewis who couldn’t finish off a great move from the Jorviks.

But they got their deserved goal only two minutes later, Khouyar’s corner turned in by Fraser Kerr for the second time in two weeks, and way too easily against an experienced Bees defence.

Sean Shields and Ryan De Havilland inspired the Bees to play back into the game, with some good work to force a few saves out of Ethan Ross, who signed from Chesterfield this summer. But they kept getting caught on the counter attack, leaving Jerome Okimo and Danny Collinge stranded as they were forced to deal with Dyson, John-Lewis and Hurst running at them.

The sustained pressure rewarded the Jorviks again. This time it was Alex Hurst, latching onto the loose ball and drilling it into the bottom corner. Laurie Walker didn’t move in between the Barnet sticks, stunned by the perfection of the strike from the 22-year-old.

Things only worsened for Dean Brennan’s side with Collinge seeing yellow for a rash tackle, and then Harry Pritchard being forced off with an injury. It could only get even worse than that, and Collinge couldn’t make it until halftime, bringing down John-Lewis on the edge of the area after he lost his duel with him. Referee Rob Massey-Ellis was quick to pull out a second yellow, meaning the Bees were with ten for the second half.

It didn’t look like Barnet could turn it around; Maz Kouhyar’s strike right from the get-go was slightly wide of the top left corner. One minute into the second half and York had three, John-Lewis again with an even easier finish off Hurst’s cross, rewarding the 342 away fans that travelled to support their in-form side.

The fans were cheering every pass now, chorusing to chants of “easy, easy” and the infamous “can we play you every week?”. And that was the story of the game for the following 20 minutes. Askey’s side were comfortable in possession, and there were even chances for Sanders and Fallowfield from the full-back positions that came close to adding to Barnet’s woes.

With twenty minutes to go, the Bees couldn’t get a touch of the ball and a well-worked cross found John-Lewis for his second of the game, and a beautiful header it was tucked into the top left well beyond Walker.

There were more away fans than home fans left in the ground with ten minutes left on the clock and finally Barnet started to attack. De Havilland’s free kick from the edge of the area was slightly over the crossbar and Kabamba’s header was the best that it gets.

A shot to summarise the game for the Bees was when new signing Idris Kanu found himself one-on-one but mistimed the shot so badly, the security guard had to go collect the ball from the vacant stand.

Three minutes of added time surely looked like the game was sealed at 4-0, but there was a chance for five and it was made five by Sam Sanders. The 20-year-old defender placed his header to perfection off another routine Maz Kouhyar corner. It was embarrassing for the home side, a terrible defensive display and nothing going forward at all to test Ross.

However, York were excellent and got everything right from the tactics to the way they executed the performance. They don’t have to travel that far, as they face Halifax Town on Tuesday who lie bottom of the league table after a terrible start to the season. Meanwhile, Barnet host Maidstone United who sit in 18th, and will be hopeful that they can rectify their leaky defence and the horrible patch of form that they have been on for the past few weeks.