Football / FA Cup: Stein inspires demise of Barnet

Chelsea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

Barnet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .0

IT WAS a victory for the King's Road over the men from Skid Row last night, as Chelsea outclassed the paupers from Barnet in this FA Cup third-round replay to earn a home tie against Sheffield Wednesday.

Over the two ties, the Bees are estimated to have collected close to pounds 100,000, which will go towards offsetting their pounds 1.7m debts. Such a windfall will doubtless be used in evidence at a creditors' meeting next Wednesday.

While acknowledging that his men were disappointed, Ray Clemence, Barnet's newly appointed general manager, glued together the metaphors as he recognised the financial benefits of the Cup run. 'There's always a silver lining somewhere and you've got to look on the bright side of life,' he said. 'It was always going to be more difficult this time because Chelsea realised it wasn't going to be an easy game.'

Chelsea eased their passage either side of half-time with goals from Gavin Peacock and Mark Stein, whose deft flicks and clever distribution made him easily the outstanding player on view.

Peacock's strike, following Craig Burley's penetrative through-ball, rounded off a smooth move, while Stein took advantage of a panic attack in the visitors' defence to claim his seventh goal in as many games.

The visitors had held out gamely for the first half-hour, and it took a mistake from Carl Hoddle, the younger brother of Chelsea's manager, Glenn, to break their resistance. Burley benefited from Hoddle Jnr's loss of possession to drive home from the edge of the area.

After the third went in, the spirit went out of Barnet, and the Blues could have had more to show than just Neil Shipperley's smooth finish 16 minutes from time. 'We did a job we should have done first time,' Hoddle Snr said. 'Over the two games Barnet have been a credit to themselves.' Now they have to gain credit of another sort next week.

Chelsea (4-3-3): Kharin; Clarke, Johnsen, Sinclair, Myers (Donaghy, 67); Spackman, Burley, Hopkin (Spencer, 76); Peacock, Stein, Shipperley. Substitute not used: Hitchcock (gk).

Barnet: Phillips; Alexander (Smith, 58), Walker, Newson, Mutchell; Wilson, Hoddle, Close, Scott; Haag, Lynch. Substitutes not used: Cooper, Pape (gk).

Referee: J Borrett (Harleston).