Gravesend & N 1 Barnet 1

GRAVESEND & Northfleet extended their unbeaten run to four games with a point against high-flying Barnet.

Once again Fleet, having won at Exeter and drawn at Barnet in recent weeks, did not look out of place against a side chasing promotion to the Football League and can consider themselves unfortunate not to win.

The home side started like a train and put Barnet on the back foot right from the kick off.

And it only took three minutes for Fleet to take the lead, with defender Chris Moore scoring his eighth goal of the season from close-range.

The goal gave Andy Ford’s men added confidence and they pushed for a second that would have given them a safety net.

Manny Omoyinmi - having to play without injured strike partner Roy Essandoh - came close to making it 2-0 after 25 minutes but his shot was saved by Ademola Bankole.

But the second goal failed to materialise and Barnet gradually came back into the match.

Former Fleet striker Liam Hatch returned to haunt his old club when he set up the leveller in the 63rd minute. Hatch headed Ian Hendon’s cross back across the face of goal and substitute Greg Pearson was on hand to put the ball past keeper Paul Wilkerson.

Gravesend then had to dig deep to prevent Barnet from using their newly-found momentum to snatch a winner in the final quarter of the match.

The defence stood firm and it was the home team who came closest to claiming all three points, with Ben Abbey nearly forcing Moussa Sidibe’s cross past Bankole in the last minute.

Ford said he had mixed feelings about the result after the game. He said: “When you go 1-0 up at home you would hope to go on and win but Barnet are a quality side so we can’t be too disappointed with a draw.

“We almost took the lead too early and we seemed to sit back too much after that.

“It was good to see Chris Moore scoring again. If you can get seven or eight goals from your centre halves then it bodes well for the team. But we missed Roy Essandoh today. He gives us an outlet ball and we missed that.”

Gravesend will be hoping to stretch their unbeaten run to five games when they travel to third-placed Shrewsbury for another tough fixture on Saturday.