Battling Bees get Allen buzzing

Martin Allen saluted his players after Barnet preserved their Football League status with a 2-1 win at Burton on a heart-thumping afternoon.

Mark Hughes squeezed home a left-foot volley from the edge of the area to keep the Bees up.

Allen was brought back to Underhill to mastermind the great escape and heaped praise on his players and he said: "It was a nervy afternoon and we didn't play well first half, but I suppose that was to be expected because of the tension, anxiety and the build-up of the whole week.

"But I thought, second half, the players stepped up to the mark and we played really, really well.

"All the credit has got to the players for the way they responded when we needed them to.

"The captain has shinned one in from the edge of the box, but we deserved that for our domination in the second half. It was always going to be a nervous occasion because 10 months of work all came down to the final afternoon of the season.

"I had a link behind the dugout to stay in touch with what was happening at Hereford, but my focus was to come and win this football match and make what happened elsewhere irrelevant."

Burton's caretaker boss Gary Rowett said: "I'm disappointed because we should have put the penalty away and that would have been two-one to us.

"The game would have been very different, but we missed it and it gave them a lift.

"Second half, they obviously wanted it a little bit more than us. They showed more desire to win the 50-50s. They were prepared to run, they were prepared to chase, and they were prepared to tackle."