The Hive has not been a ground that has been kind to York managers in recent years. Back in February 2024, a 2-0 defeat spelled the end of Neal Ardley’s reign at the club. A year later, his replacement Adam Hinshelwood saw his side’s title challenge take a major blow when Barnet ran out 3-1 winners. Yet despite losing this game by the same scoreline, the ire of the travelling fans was aimed not towards head coach Scott Lindsey but squarely in the direction of referee Ben Toner, after his petty dismissal of Hiram Boateng turned the tide of the contest in the home side’s favour.
Barnet manager Dean Brennan made changes to the side that had drawn with Oldham in their previous game, handing Jack Maskell a first league start of the season up front alongside Kabongo Tshimanga, and promoting Nik Tavares and Brandon Comley to the starting eleven. Perhaps anticipating that the hosts would try to outmuscle his side in midfield, Scott Lindsey handed Hiram Boateng a first start in place of Arthur Read, while Joe Grey also returned to the side at Frankie Maguire’s expense.
The Bees looked to make their presence felt early on in the encounter, with a series of enthusiastic challenges flying in, but City were nevertheless able to carve out the better early opportunities. Six minutes in, Joe Grey had a sight of goal when he received Joe Felix’s cutback and hit a low effort goalwards, but Barnet keeper Matthew Cox got a palm to the ball to send it wide. Then, a minute later, Mark Kitching had the ball in the net after connecting beautifully with Ollie Banks’ cross to volley home, but his celebrations were interrupted by a narrow offside call.
Banks became an early casualty of the physical nature of the game, being forced off with less than a quarter of an hour played after a clash of heads. Arthur Read came off the bench in his place, having perhaps been unlucky to lose his place after impressing in the weekend’s win over Port Vale. The change didn’t impede City’s momentum, and they went close again through Boateng when his effort from outside the area flew wide after Grey’s run had created an opening. An even better chance fell to Ollie Pearce soon after when Felix’s well-timed pass found him in front of goal, but Cox did well to get down and divert Pearce’s first-time shot behind for a corner.
The Minstermen made their pressure pay when they took a deserved lead after 36 minutes. Grey slipped a pass through to Read, and though Read looked to find Felix in the area, a heavy touch from Felix returned the ball to Read’s feet. The York substitute opted to shoot, hitting a left-footed effort that curled beyond the reach of Cox and into the far corner. It was Read’s first goal in a City shirt, and a just reward for their dominance in the first half.
However, having worked so hard to take the lead, City held it for less than three minutes as a failure to defend a set piece cost them again. A long throw from the right was flicked on by Oisín Gallagher, and the ball bobbled past Zak Johnson and through to Kabongo Tshimanga who nipped in front of Fallowfield and made no mistake from close range. The goal meant that the prolific Tshimanga had scored in six consecutive games for Barnet, but York will feel there was some doubt over the legitimacy of the initial throw-in award. A half-time score of 1-1 arguably failed to reflect City’s superiority up until that stage, but after the break the game would turn in a different direction.
Barnet came flying out of the blocks at the start of the second half, with McNally impressively denying Tshimanga a second goal twice in quick succession. First, the young keeper blocked an effort at the near post after Tshimanga had brought the ball down on the edge of the six yard box, then he saved a low attempt with his legs after the Barnet goalscorer had been played in by his strike partner Maskell.
Then, on 52 minutes, referee Ben Toner made a pivotal decision as the Minstermen were reduced to ten men in bizarre fashion. Boateng, already on a yellow card following a late challenge near the end of the first half, received a second booking for kicking the ball at Tshimanga when trying to take a quick free kick. Toner had booked Barnet’s Idris Kanu for a similar offence just minutes earlier, so perhaps felt duty bound to give the same treatment, but it felt a harsh way for Boateng’s first start since April to end, as well as a novel interpretation of the laws of the game.
Both managers reacted to the dismissal by making changes to their sides, with Brennan making four substitutions and Lindsey introducing Morgan Williams and Josh Stones from the bench. Having the extra man enabled Barnet to begin dominating possession, and one of their substitutes, Tom Knowles, stung the palms of McNally with an effort after Gallagher had found him inside the area. Stones made a nuisance of himself for City but was feeding off scraps, and his most important contribution was probably a last-ditch tackle in his own area to deny a promising opening for the home side.
While the home side were seeing plenty of the ball, they were struggling to create clear chances as a resolute City tried to see the game out. With ten minutes remaining, though, Barnet gained the lead thanks to a superb strike by substitute Jake Reeves. A cross from the left was headed out by Johnson but fell to Reeves on the edge of the area, who brought the ball down with his chest before unleashing a powerful half-volley that flew beyond the helpless McNally and into the bottom corner.
Having taken the lead, Brennan threw on his final substitute in the form of young winger Damola Ajayi, and he made an immediate impact. First, his pass put fellow substitute Nnamdi Ofoborh through on goal only for Ofoborh’s shot to flash wide of the post. Then, with three minutes remaining, Ajayi’s slaloming run into the box led to a farcical third goal for the Bees, as his shot looped up via Zak Johnson and down on to the crossbar before deflecting into the net off a bamboozled McNally to put the result beyond doubt.
The contingent of York fans made their feelings towards the referee plain, and when Lindsey did similar after the final whistle, he too was immediately shown a red card. While a decision going against your team will always irk fans, even neutral observers would have struggled to disagree with the assessment that Toner lost control of the match. Having failed to get a handle on a lively first half, he over-compensated in the second period and ended up dishing out a total of twelve yellow cards and two reds. More to the point, his needless sending-off of Boateng (which resulted indirectly from his initial petty booking of Kanu) effectively ruined the game as a spectacle.
For City, some heart can be taken from the performance as they looked the better team while the game remained eleven-a-side. However, the wait for a first away win following their return to the EFL continues. Another opportunity to break that curse awaits with Saturday’s trip to Grimsby Town, where Boateng will be suspended and Lindsey will be forced to watch from the stands. Finishing that game with eleven players would represent progress at this point.
