Martin Wild speaks to Stuart Nicholson and Barnet's Paul Fairclough for their reaction to Town's 1-0 win over Barnet.

Stuart Nicholson was all smiles after a goal six seconds over the allotted four minutes of added time secured Town's first home win in five attempts.

"I think it's five or six games is it, without a win, and boy, we needed that. Teams were starting to get ahead of us. There are four or five teams in or around us with a similar number of points or one off, so the three points is a big boost for us."

Was he aware of the coaching staff's celebration of the goal - which saw manager Gary Peters greet Michaels Symes' winner like it had secured promotion already?

"Yeah, I saw that. The gaffer was dancing in the changing room as well after the match - he's over the moon! Hopefully we can take that win into Saturday (away at Rotherham)."

Referee Dean Whitestone had a terrible afternoon (except allowing those extra few seconds that is) and the on-loan Geordie admitted it was frustrating for the players to hear the whistle every few minutes for the slightest infringement.

"We were trying to play at a high tempo and their players were going down after nothing challenges really, and he was stopping play and stopping that tempo if you like.

"There was nothing wrong with Dave Hibbert's 'goal' (disallowed after 80 minutes) as far as I'm concerned. He used his strength well, their kid's hit the deck and Dave's stuck it away in the bottom corner, there was nothing wrong with it. As long as Hibbo keeps plugging away, he'll get 20, 25 goals this season easy. You've just got to keep plugging away and not let it affect you - whatever happens, happens.

"The gaffer puts it into our heads to keep going and have belief for ninety minutes and it paid off today with Symesy's goal."

There was a feeling in the press box that Saturday's performance was Nicholson's best yet in a Town shirt and all that was missing was a goal to show for his efforts.

"The keeper (Lee Harrison) made two smart saves. The first one I wasn't really expecting, Hunty foxed me with his pass as well, I should have maybe put my laces through it. The second one I did put my laces through it and he still saved it. I'm getting the chances and it's good that I'm in the position to take up those chances and hopefully the goals will come soon enough.

"Good performances will keep me in the gaffer's mind when he's picking the side but I need the goals as well. Taking up the positions to score is better than not being in them. A run in the side will help my confidence and goals will improve it still further."

It was a second successive clean sheet at the New Stadium and the 21-year old recognised the difference between picking up three points instead of the one that looked likely as the game entered into stoppage time.

"Yeah, it's a platform for us to build on and it's like an extra point as well if you like as it might go down to goal difference to get into the play-offs at the end of the season.

"We were aware that it had been two months since we won at home and that just adds to the pressure you feel. But it's how you deal with that pressure, we kept going until the 94th minute and ground out a win, and it shows how much we want it. We're through it now and let's hope we can kick on. They had no chance of coming back into it so late - if you score after an hour, there's still time for the opposition to come back but we knew the whistle was going to go straight from the kick-off which was great."

Captain Stewart Drummond, manager Gary Peters and striker Stuart Nicholson all said in post match interviews that the Shrews deserved their success yesterday. One person who disagreed was Barnet boss Paul Fairclough.

"It was a fantastic, battling performance," he said. "To come to this fantastic new stadium, with a euphoric crowd desperate for the win, I thought we handled it exceptionally well. Coming in at half-time I thought we were in the ascendancy and were marginally the better team. You saw out there two sides scrapping and battling for every ball and I was more than happy with the first half performance.

"I thought the second half from both teams points of view developed into a snarling, scrappy affair. That maybe affected us more than it did them. Our commitment and effort I thought would be enough to get us a draw out of it. By the 94th minute it was job done and you'll take that point back to Hertfordshire but football can be a cruel game. We'll win a lot of games if we apply ourselves like that, they did not deserve what they got today.

"The goal was a blur really. Disappointment's kicked in and I'll look at it again on the DVD. It's not just the goals you analyse, it's the performance as well and I can't criticise any of my players after a performance like that. To be fair Lee Harrison's pulled off a couple of good saves for us but away from home you expect this type of game and we battled courageously. We'd done the job apart from those last 30 seconds.

"The game could have gone either way really; we'd played a couple of dangerous balls into their box in the latter stages when maybe the game got a bit loose, but it's very unfortunate the way it finished for us today."