Barnet drop first points of the season as Cheltenham Town peg back league leaders

Rainy lunchtime at the Hive : Picture by @YTJourno

League Two

Barnet (1) 2 Lakin 11, Tshimanga 78pen

Cheltenham Town (0) 2 Broom 60, McCann 65

Barnet did their best to prove that actions speak louder than words, but in the end had to be satisfied with just the point in their bid to silence the constant bellowing from Steve Cotterill from the sidelines.

The Cheltenham boss may have had health scores a few years ago but he is clearly now in robust health and he was easily the loudest man at the Hive, issuing a non-stop flow of instructions. Trying to micro manage every second of play.

He managed to keep it going for a full 90 minutes and his larynx took a fearful battering.

The Bees so wanted to show their voices on the pitch would count for more and they led when Charlie Lakin rolled a sweet low shot to the left of keeper Wyll Stanway after a fine darting run down the right from Adam Senior and a touch on from Kabongo Tshimanga.

But the visitors weathered the storm and missed Barnet chances allowed them a route back into it. Two goals in a five-minute spell in the second half almost gave the West Country side all the points.

It needed a late penalty to ensure that Barnet's unbeaten start to the campaign was preserved at least, even if they lost their 100 per cent start from two games.

Bees boss Dean Brennan was only too happy to let his players do the talking for him during the opening passages and for Idris Kanu to keep troubling the visitors down the left flank.

For all that, it needed an alert stop from Barnet stopper Matt Cox early on to keep out a fast raid from Cheltenham which saw Jake Evans race onto a deft touch from James Wilson, the Robins captain.

There were a couple of decent raids from the visitors, led by midfieder Ryan Broom and Cox did well to get behind a Jake Evans shot. But Barnet should have given themselves a cushion before the break when Jake Reeves crossed for an unmarked Tshimanga, who got his header all wrong from just a few yards out.

Reeves curled an effort onto the Cheltenham crossbar following a corner at the start of the second half and a Lakin volley from just outside the box did not clear the woodwork by much.

That failure to cash in was punished on the hour when loose play allowed Broom to break forward and beat Cox with a low shot to his left which went in off the post.

Worse was to follow when Myles Kenlock made a hash of trying to police a ball to safety and had the ball whipped off him by Evans, who then rolled the ball square for Charlie McCann to bury.

At least the tale did not end too badly as the Bees rescued a draw.

Lakin almost levelled it up after reaching a good nod on from sub Tom Knowles but his shot was blocked But moments later Oisin Gallagher was fouled just inside the box when he stepped in the way of an attempted clearance.

And Tshimanga coolly put away the penalty with a chip down the middle.

Bees: (3-4-2-1) Cox - Collinge, Tavares, Kenlock (Williams 66) - Senior, Gallagher, Reeves (Comley 75), Kanu (Maskell 66) - Lakin (Noel-Williams 87), Ofoborh (Knowles 66) - Tshimanga

Robins: (4-1-4-1) Stanway - Tomkinson, Cundy, Wilson, Willcox - Tomlinson - Broom, McWilliams (Stevenson 90+2), McCann, Evans (Shipley 77), Weimann (Bickerstaff 68)