Barnet 3 Dagenham & Redbridge 1

A comfortable win for the Bees against a very poor Dagenham outfit. Jason Puncheon had already had two free runs from the half way line, forcing two saves from pantomime villian keeper Tony Roberts, when he was scythed down in the box five minutes before the break. Puncheon slotted home himself from the spot. The visitors had their best chance of the game (prior to the pointless consolation goal) when a corner was headed onto the bar and the rebound volleyed wide by, er, someone, I was in the terrace by the opposite corner flag. Despite this I had a good enough view of Ishmael Yakubu's idiotic two-footed lunge in a position of no danger while already on a yellow card. I think he might have been given a straight red but in any case the Bees were down to ten men for the second half (on a day of sending offs it would seem).

Fortunately though Puncheon, the game's outstanding player by a country mile, secured the points. After five minutes of half-hearted Daggers pressure in the second half, a neat move ended with Adam Birchall feeding Puncheon inside the box, and he lifted his shot over Roberts for 2-0. That was pretty much that as you'd never have guessed Barnet were down to ten men, so poor were the opposition. Nonetheless Puncheon completed his hat-trick with an arcing left-foot shot into the top corner. An excellent hat-trick from a player who is way too good for this division. There was still time for Dagenham to scramble a consolation and Barnet sub Giuliano Grazioli to fire against the post.

Hats off to Puncheon and also stand-in centre halves Joe Devera and Kenny Gillet, both of whom have featured more often at full-back this season. The visitors were pretty desperate overall and I wouldn't bet against a return to the Conference. Nice to hear "Still Out" resounding around Underhill again, that took us back.

Elsewhere it was a shame that Rangers were knocked back by yet another injury time goal at Plymouth, but all the same, one less game to go before the transfer window opening and while I don't expect an entire new team to come in, we should be looking at half a defence at the very least, and ideally a goalscorer although everyone wants one of those and there aren't too many to go around. We'll see.