Report:

Wingate & Finchley earned a second successive 1-0 win in preseason, this time over League 2's Barnet. The visitors, fielding a side mixed with first team players and triallists, received a shock in only the fourth minute when Wingate & Finchley took the lead with a beautiful goal. Sam Sloma received a ball from Dan Nielsen just outside the area and played it through to Leon Smith with an intelligent low pass that split the defence. He turned onto his right side and rifled the ball past the stranded Phil Carpenter in goal.

Sloma again was creator a few minutes later. In his floating role, he drifted wide to the left and made space to cross with his right foot for Joe O'Brien to flick on, but his headed effort missed the far post.

Barnet started to play their way into the game after the hosts' early dominance, and John Megicks was sent clean through but he hooked his shot wide of the left post. Barnet finished the half on top though their attempts on goal could only be classed as half-chances, and thanks to some good last-ditch blocking by the defenders Gavin King went largely untested.

With three friendlies still to play, there were many changes at half time to give the whole squad playing time. Josh Cooper fed through fellow substitute Lewis Jones with a well-weighted low pass down the middle. Carpenter partially blocked Jones as he tried to go past him, but Jones recovered and his subsequent shot was blocked, seemingly by the outstretched arm of a desperate covering defender, though the referee's view was blocked and he was unable to give the decision.

A quick Blues counter-attack saw Angus McLachlan feed Chris Chase down the right. A misjudgement by the keeper had him stranded in no man's land and Chase's attempted lob only found the side netting. There were many more changes after the break as the managers tried to get the most out of their respective squads, however this disrupted the flow of the game, and Wingate & Finchley held out comfortably for a slender win.

Wingate & Finchley have a free Saturday, and then travel to Oxhey Jets on Tuesday night looking to continue their unbeaten preseason, before exciting home games to Rushden & Diamonds and Wealdstone.

Wednesday 28th July 2010

Pre-Season Friendly

Wingate & Finchley 1  Barnet 0

HT 1-0

Scorer

Smith 4

Attendance: 273