Barnet 0 Lincoln City 5 . . .

Barnet manager Paul Fairclough and his players had still not emerged from the dressing room more than an hour after the final whistle.

They were "locked" in as the media waited in vain for the Bees boss to emerge.

It does not need much imagination to guess what was being said behind the closed doors, however.

Sorry Barnet were outclassed by their high-flying visitors and Fairclough would no doubt have been spelling out some home truths.

The Bees started brightly but ended the match looking a demoralised and disjointed side.

Lincoln, to their credit, were ruthless, but the way Barnet caved in at the back was alarming to say the least.

It might have been different if Ian Hendon had converted the first chance of the match, which came on 15 seconds. Liam Hatch won the ball on the left and rolled it towards the edge of the area, but the arriving Hendon placed his shot wide.

Magno Vieira then latched on to a Hendon ball into the box that was missed by everyone, but he needed to hit it first time. A poor first touch took him away from the goal and his eventual shot from a tight angle was smothered by the keeper.

The Imps had offered little but they were one up after 25 minutes. Hendon's misplaced pass was gathered and Lee Frecklington was set free. He waited for keeper Ross Flitney to meet him and then slipped the ball for Jamie Forrester to roll into an empty net. It was an incisive move and typical of Lincoln's play.

Hatch forced the keeper to tip away a volley within a minute of the goal, but Lincoln were two up just after the half-hour. The offside trap was beaten again and Flitney brought down Forrester with a trailing leg as the striker tried to round him. The Barnet keeper escaped with a yellow card and Forrester sent him the wrong way from the penalty spot.

It was three on 38 minutes. Mark Stallard got a feint touch to a Scott Kerr free-kick which forced Flitney to save, but he could only push the ball out as far as Lee Beevers who beat Hatch to the rebound to put the game out of the home side's reach.

It got even worse seven minutes into the second half, when Nicky Bailey tripped Frecklington on the edge of the box. The referee said the foul was inside the area and Forrester completed his hat-trick with his second penalty of the afternoon.

The Barnet heads visibly dropped and Frecklington should have added another midway through the half, only for Anthony Charles to clear his effort off the line.

Jason Puncheon tried his best with a couple of long-range efforts, but the only save the Lincoln keeper had to make in the second half was a routine stop from a Richard Graham snapshot in injury time.

But the Imps had not finished themselves, sub Leon Mettam meeting a deep cross and bundling the ball home from close range to round off an awful afternoon for Barnet.

BARNET (4-4-2): Flitney; Hendon (Devera 78), Warhurst (Yakubu 85), Charles, Nicolau; Cogan (Graham 62), Sinclair, Bailey, Puncheon; Vieira, Hatch. Subs not used: Jamiez-Ruis, Gross.

Attendance: 2,409.