EPHRON’S SPOT ON AS BEES GET BUZZ BACK

A SECOND-HALF penalty calmly placed in the bottom right corner by the impressive Ephron Mason-Clark gave Barnet a deserved victory over a Torquay side that only rallied once they had gone behind.

Adam Marriott’s slick header at the near post from a corner just before half time gave the Bees a lead only for a stupendous free-kick from Armani Little to level the scores early in the second half.

But just six minutes later Mason-Clark’s spot-kick put the home side in front once more.

Torquay boss Gary Johnson admitted: “I’m disappointed about the first half, we don’t seem to be playing like we are at home, you can’t give the ball away the amount of times we did.

“Somehow we have to change our away form and that is probably down to individuals, who might be able to play at home, but who can’t play away. I’ve said a few homes truths again to some of them.”

Barnet should have taken the lead when Sam Woods’ effort hit his team mate Reiss Greenidge on the goal-line when a goal looked certain.

Mason-Clark then performed an amazing moment of skill when he seemingly plucked the ball out of the sky, tormented the Torquay defence with a mazy run before his shot was parried wide by Shaun MacDonald for a corner.

Torquay were a different outfit early in the second half and deservedly levelled in the 58th minute when Little found the top left corner with a powerful free-kick from 25 yards.

Briefly Torquay had Barnet worried, but when Mitch Brundle’s astute through ball set free Mason Bloomfield his progress could only be halted by Ali Omar’s desperate lunge, with referee Gary Parsons instantly pointing to the spot. Mason-Clark did the rest.

Johnson added: “Barnet deserved it, we didn’t, we got a great goal but we didn’t create many chances at all and they created quite a few, especially in the first half.”

Barnet’s Interim Head Coach Dean Brennan beamed: “We showed a lot of intensity, and we should really have gone in at half time 4-0 in the lead.

“We showed great grit and great determination, especially after their fantastic goal, a great equaliser, the character we showed to come back and win the game was immense.

“We are averaging two points a game lately, that is play-off form and that is what we need to continue to do.

“We created a lot of chances today, made a lot of good entries, our intensity was outstanding, we need to keep setting these standards, keep raising the bar.

“What we have got is character, we need to continue to work our socks off, but I cannot praise the players enough.”