ONE week on from decrying the lack of professional referees in Leagues 1 and 2, and the subject was becoming a familiar refrain from Wycombe boss, Gareth Ainsworth come Saturday tea-time.

Sitting in the press room half an hour after the final whistle had condemned the Chairboys to an unexpected 2-0 defeat to Barnet, Ainsworth cut a weary figure who was having to bite his tongue.

"The referee has apologised, and I'll relay that to the fans, but it's not going to make it any better," revealed Ainsworth.

The referee was Bedfordshire official Graham Horwood. The apology was for failing to play a crucial 14th minute advantage when Paris Cowan-Hall was having his shirt tugged by a Barnet defender as he stormed forward.

The Wycombe attacker managed to chip in a cross to Adebayo Akinfenwa who beat Barnet central-defender, Bondz N'Gala to the head the ball in at the far post.

However, by then, the referee had already blown his whistle for the shirt tug and a Wycombe free-kick. It was the second of two Wycombe advantages which Horwood failed to play in the game.

But it is on those moments that games change. Had the goal stood, there is no doubt Wycombe would have gone on to take all three points.

For the first half, Barnet were woeful. Their defence was shaky and their tactics blunt - hit the ball to powerful front runner John Akinde and see if he can out-muscle the Wycombe defence.

In turn, Wycombe enjoyed huge chunks of possession, but just didn't seem to turn that advantage into goals.

And when Portuguese winger Mauro Vilhete finished off a neat move after 64 minutes to give Barnet the lead, you knew the visitors would put a wall of white shirts behind the ball.

Sadly, Wycombe lacked the imagination or invention to get behind the Bees' defence with killer balls. Barnet came to do a job, and they got their desserts.

Ainsworth wasn't happy about the goal, and there will certainly be inquests about the build-up to the Barnet opener as Akinde and substitute Jean-Louise Akpa Akpro combined neatly down the left-hand touchline to carve open the Wycombe defence.

"We gifted them a goal with their first shot on target," said the Wycombe boss. "But once Barnet went a goal up they parked the bus. We needed to get behind them and we couldn't."

When Myles Weston was sent off for a second bookable offence right on full-time, John Akinde's profiteering from an Aaron Pierre defensive mistake four minutes into injury time, this merely rubbed salt into the Wycombe wounds.

This was a smash and grab, and Barnet scored with their only two shots on goal of the game.

The Chairboys deserved better, although in the second half, and especially following the first Barnet goal, they created few chances.

"The second half was very disappointing," admitted Ainsworth. "We have got to be better than that. People were not taking the bull by the horns and taking some responsibility on some of the passes. I thought we could have been better and more decisive on some passes."

Ainsworth had no criticism over Weston's dismissal, in fact he was pleased with the ground his player had made up to get in the challenge. His criticism was levelled at those players who failed to turn it on.

"There was a lot of passing the buck, and that's not good enough," he explained.

Wycombe: Blackman, Harriman, Jacobson, Stewart, Pierre, Thompson (sub: Kashket, 67), Rowe, Gape (sub: Bloomfield, 83), Freeman (sub: Weston, 67), Akinfenwa, Cowan-Hall. Substitutes: Brown, Bloomfield, Wood, O'Nien, De Havilland.

Barnet: Vickers, Hoyte, Vilhete, N'Gala, Nelson, Sesay, Champion, Muggleton, Weston (sub: Taylor, 79), Gambin (sub: Akpa Akpro, 55), Akinde (sub: Kyei, 94). Substitutes: Stephens, Dembele, Watson, Amaluzor.

Referee: Graham Horwood (Bedfordshire)