A hard earned point for Bromley against Barnet was a good reward for the players attitude under very trying circumstances. Manager Neil Smith though wasn’t downbeat about dropping two points.

“I heard someone say it was a disappointing draw. It was a disappointing draw because everyone expects you to win. It’s not a disappointing draw when you look at the fact that we had ten men from fifteen minutes ‘til the eightieth and still created chances and went a goal up again.”

“I’ve got to give full credit to my players. Yes, I want to win. Yes. You want to beat Barnet who are near the bottom but they’ve got a new manager, a new lease of life, a change of player personnel in respect of you get another chance so it was never going to be easy. No football match is easy and I thought that to go ten men down against them doesn’t help.”

Being the first game that Barnet played under interim manager Paul Fairclough, following the departure of Tim Flowers during the week, also had a new manager bounce effect. “You’re going to get it. Players suddenly get their chance to show why they thought they should be playing. Likewise, if there’s no relegation now, there’s less pressure on teams that are down at the bottom so they can play with that little bit of freedom where that might have been a little bit of an anxiety.”

“It was a totally different game than what we were preparing for from Tuesday but if I’m looking for attitude and desire from my players, I totally got it today.”

On the announcement on the eve of the game that the proposal for step 2 to continue had been declined, Smith said “The whole point of the integrity of the league is that a team at the bottom is fighting for their lives to stay in the league. If you take away having something to fight for it takes away the fact that the bottom can beat the top. It’s poor that it’s got to this stage so late in the season that they’ve made a decision like that.”

“Before the season started they should have had if this happens or this happens or this happens. It just seems very off the cuff. I feel for the clubs, I feel for the owners, I feel for the players, I feel for the supporters.”

“We’ll look at this as a game that we wanted to win at home but we’ll still in and around there and that’s where we want to be at the end of the season.” 

Although not liking to talk about officials, they had a major effect on this game and Smith had to admit “I’ve never seen officiating like it. I thought it was some of the poorest I’ve seen, for both sides in the end, sending Dunney (Barnet captain James Dunne) off at the end.”

“Penalties were given that shouldn’t have been and penalties that should have been given weren’t. He didn’t run the game to the best that we should be getting at this level.”

Joe Kizzi was dismissed early on when conceding a penalty which appeared to be a case of ‘double jeopardy’ whereby if a spot kick is awarded it hasn’t denied the offending club of an obvious goalscoring opportunity. Smith explained “He (the referee) said it was a malicious tackle and that pretty much sums it up.”

“He (Kizzi) actually puts his foot round it and I thought he actually won the ball. It’s in the box. It makes the referee have a decision and is it a sending off? Definitely not. Fair play to Paul Fairclough who’s been in the game a lot longer than me, he totally agreed with us.”

“We’ll be sending video evidence because we don’t believe Kizzi should have been sent off and that then changes the whole complex of the game. You’re fighting a losing battle because you’re now down to ten men but fair play to my boys. They put in a shift.”

There was also a great shout for a spot kick denied at the other end when Jack Bridge was brought down in the area. “It’s a penalty. He’s taken his feet away. We’ve seen the video and he does and to be fair to the ref, he was in a great position so I don’t know what he’s looking for, for a penalty. How he spotted the one, hitting the hand, which we did actually get, you tend to wonder.” 

There is little time for Bromley to recover as they are back in action on the road on Tuesday. “We’ve got Yeovil who whenever we play them seem to have something on us so it would be nice to put one over them on Tuesday. A very tough game. I think Sarlly’s (Darren Sarll) turned them around brilliantly.”

“I’ve got some tired boys in there. They’ll have a good day off tomorrow, enjoy Mother’s Day, and come in on Monday to look for a fight on Tuesday and win three points.”