[owl-zat]

Here's my take of the game from a neutrals point of view (I'm a Sheffield Wednesday fan who had a blank Saturday so visited as i'd never been to Accy before) :-

Well, got back from Accrington Stanley v Barnet and a surreal experience.

I spotted the ground behind a pub and set into the ground (a la Camp Nou) and so we went into the pub (about 1pm) which was virtually empty apart from a group of about 8 Accy fans in the corner who turned out to be The Accrington Stanley Supporters Norwegian Branch.

We got 2 pints and were charged £2.60 which was erm cheap and think they made a mistake cus it was £4.80 on my round.

For a pub about 50 yards from a football ground (and with a fit young barmaid) you'd have thought it would be heaving but it was empty until about 2pm when there were probably 40 people in there.

We watched the Hartlepool v West Ham game on a nice big t.v although for some reason the sound was about 5 seconds behind the picture so you'd watch a bit of action, then turn round to say something to my mate or have a drink and then you'd hear the crowd cheer as if there was a shot or something but obviously it had already happened.

The Barnet coach must have arrived cus two of their fans came into the pub.

We went in about 2:50pm on to the home end terrace (well 3 steps) which ran along the side of the pitch and very close to the touchline where the linesman could and was subject to a bit of barracking from the home fans.

Loads of flags were being waved on the home end like at a game in say Italy and there was a big flag saying Accrington Ultra's on it.

On the away end we could see 3 Barnet fans all with flags which they waved constantly for 90 minutes too.

The game kicked off and Barnet scored after 6 minutes when the home defence fell asleep and a quick free kick down Barnet's right was crossed in and headed home by Paul Furlong.

After 19 minutes Barnet's no. 3 Gillet was sent off in the far corner for a sliding lunge and then from that moment it was clear that Barnet were going to 'take their time' over everything to the annoyance of the Accy fans.

At half time they had a lucky programme draw for the chance to win £1000 by hitting the bar from the edge of the penalty area 2 out of 3 times and some suit probably out of some corporate do came on to take part (fix fix fix?)

After this they invited another couple of Under 16's to have a go but both failed as miserably as the suited guy.

Then the Norwegian contingent were invited onto the pitch to sing their Accrington Stanley chants.

Accy didn't really threaten until the second half and after 56 minutes a low cross from Chris Turner was met at the far post by Mullin to make it 1-1 and then there seemed to be only one possible winner of this game.

On 80 minutes the goal maker was substituted only for the tannoy announcer to broadcast 10 seconds later that he had been nominated man of the match which must have been a bit of an embarrassment to the Accy manager as he wasn't injured and still causing trouble down the wing.

Barnet players were still wasting lots of time and so the tannoy announcer said 'Amazingly, the referee has indicated a minimum of 3 additional minutes will be played' which was met with derision from the home fans.

All I can say is the day was 'different' in front of a crowd of 1056.