Barnet 2 Gillingham 1

GILLINGHAM went out of the FA Cup at the first hurdle as League 2 side Barnet came from behind to win 2-1 at Underhill on Saturday.

Manager Mark Stimson blasted the performance as unacceptable after seeing his side let slip a one goal lead.

Stimson said: "I’m very disappointed because I’m a proud person, I’ve got a lot of pride in my body, and for 45 minutes we did okay but the reason myself and Scott Barrett (assistant manager) are here is because of what we’ve seen in that second 45 minutes.

"It was totally not acceptable and not good enough. We should be in the hat for the next round. We were 1-0 ahead at half time and we should have gone on and won that game. You don’t concede two goals to a very, very average team like Barnet."

The Gills took the lead on 27 minutes when Nicky Southall crossed from the right and Dave Graham headed the ball in from close range past keeper Lee Harrison.

The Gills almost doubled their lead on the hour mark when a fine move involving Steve Lomas and Nicky Southall ended with Graham forcing an excellent stop from Harrison.

But the game was then turned on its head, as Barnet immediately went down the other end and equalised, when keeper Simon Royce came but failed to collect a Josh Wright free kick and Ismail Yakubu headed home.

Less than three minutes later it was 2-1 to the home side when Kenny Gillet's cross was headed in by striker Liam Hatch.

Barnet's Ashley Carew was dismissed late on after collecting his second yellow card of the afternoon but it was too late for the Gills to salvage anything.

Gillingham: Royce, Southall, Cox, Sodje (Freeman 80), King, Cogan, Lomas (Crofts 72), Bentley, Brown, Facey (Mulligan 72), Graham.

Subs Not Used: Stillie, Clohessy.

Attendance: 2,843.

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