Bees sting but City will keep fighting
YORK will beat the drop, manager Jackie McNamara insisted, despite seeing his side surrender a lead to Barnet.
The Minstermen struck first, Lewis Alessandra instantly endearing himself to the Bootham Crescent faithful with a goal 20 minutes into his debut.
Barnet levelled through John Akinde before the interval to leave York seven points adrift of safety, yet remains upbeat.
“I still believe we’ll stay up and catch Stevenage. Our destiny is still in our own hands,” he said.
“We showed more fight and passion.We want to score goals. On another day we could have scored four or five.We hit the bar twice, we had a chance at the back post late on.
“But were creating chances, which is a good thing. It’s one point but it should be three.
“There’s no doubt we were the better team.
“We need to keep doing the same thing. I think our concentration can still be better. It’s important to take chances when we get them.We need everybody pushing together to make sure we start winning.”
York started the brightest of the two sides, forcing three corners in the opening minutes before Alessandra gave them the lead midway through the first half.
Jake Hyde broke quickly and, after his shot came back off the post, Alessandra was on hand to put away the rebound but the Bees were level in the 38th minute. James Pearson did well down the right and crossed low for danger man Akinde to finish.
York began the second half in much the same way they did the first, winning a series of corners and hitting the bar twice.
In stoppage time, substitute Vadaine Oliver opted to chest in the box rather than head, before Bradley Fewster failed to convert when one-on-one.
The draw earned Barnet a fourth point of the week, following their 3-0 victory at Newport County on Tuesday.
And manager Martin Allen said:“It was always going to be a difficult game after the trip abroad on Tuesday and coming up here Friday morning. “The players put in a fantastic effort in Wales, so I thought we looked a bit lacklustre in the first half and weren’t up to the speed that we’ve been at.
“In the second half I thought we played much better and had more opportunities where perhaps we could have won the game.
“When they’re fighting for their lives like they were, with new signings coming in over the last couple of days, after what was not a good weekend for them at Dagenham, they were always going to come out and fight with that extra bit of spirit in front of their own crowd.”