Barnet boss Martin Allen was far from surprised to see Josh Murphy score a hat-trick against his young side in the Checkatrade Trophy.

The former MK Dons and Leicester manager saw his side put to the sword by an experienced Canaries Under-23s side at The Hive on Tuesday night, with the winger scoring three in the 5-0 victory.

'They have some outstanding players and the lad on the left wing (Murphy) is an outstanding performer,' Allen said.

'It's no secret I've tried to get him on loan here many times because he's a very good player and was the difference between the two teams.

'Credit to all our players because they kept going until the end, had the right attitude and played some good football. We played a different system and the young lads did really well.'

The hosts made a spirited start to the Southern Group F clash but saw experienced captain Bondz N'Gala sent off for a tackle on Murphy in the 33rd minute.

At that stage the match was still 0-0 but Murphy's opener in first-half stoppage time opened the floodgates.

'The result, I don't think, shows the quality of the performance of our players,' Allen added, speaking to the Bees' website.

'The sending off, without a shadow of doubt, totally changed the whole complex of the game.

'I don't think it was a red card. It was a hard tackle but he had to go in to tackle and the ball was there to be won. It was the right challenge Bondz had to make. The referee saw it differently and we have to respect his view.

'They had not been anywhere near our goal at that point. After that to play against that sort of team with 11 men is hard. To play with 10 men and so many young players made it even more difficult.'