Football / Divisions Two and Three: Barnet break their duck

ALL is joy and rapture at Barnet. A point last weekend, three yesterday. The Second Division championship next May? Unlikely, but their capacity for the unexpected (like still being in existence) was manifestly evident at Huddersfield yesterday. Tony Finnegan brought the Bees back from 1-0 down and was then sent off. Six minutes later Kelly Haag gave Barnet the lead, and the 10-man team saw out the final 17 minutes for victory. Gary Phillips, the

player-manager who was rewarded for his pains with a new contract last week, now takes Barnet to within five points of Fulham and Cardiff.

STOCKPORT remain at the top of the Second Division after beating Exeter City who yesterday announced a boardroom change after a month's wrangling finally left 51 per cent of the club's shares in jeweller Ivor Doble's control. Doble's new purchase had a distinctly Ratneresque feel yesterday. Exeter went one down after three minutes and lost 4-0. . Doble didn't see the match but captured the present state of the club, saying: 'There's still a lot to be done.'

CREWE went top of the Third Division yesterday, but the best action was at the bottom - strugglers Chesterfield broke their run of seven defeats with a 3-1 win over Torquay - and particularly Hereford where three men kept goal for Colchester but not one of them kept a clean sheet. And as the gloves changed hands, Hereford's Chris Pike scored against the lot of them. Pike beat John Keeley before he was sent off for a 41st-minute professional foul, then Roy McDonough, the player-manager who was between the posts for the last few minutes of the first-half, and then reserve keeper Nathan Munson, who was himself sent off in the 67th minute. At Crewe last week, Hereford lost 6-0; yesterday they won 5-0. Funny game, football.

BARNET tried hypnotism, Northampton have tried to pamper the lads into winning ways. Brian Lomax's appointment as player welfare officer helped them to a 5-1 victory over Mansfield in midweek. The result of the soft approach yesterday? A 7-0 defeat, with Scunthorpe's Matthew Carmichael scoring three.