Barnet 3-3 Brentford in FA Cup fourth round at The Hive

Dan Sparkes' brilliant free-kick earned non-league Barnet an FA Cup fourth-round replay against Brentford after they twice fought from a goal down.

Ollie Watkins' long-range strike gave Brentford the lead before Shaq Coulthirst scored twice in three second-half minutes.

Neal Maupay made it 2-2 from the spot although it appeared David Tutonda had not fouled Watkins in the area.

Sergi Canos fired home as Brentford led again before Sparkes' stunning effort.

Barnet or Brentford will be away at Championship side Swansea in the next round.

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There were 38 efforts on goal and the woodwork was struck three times during a thrilling contest between two sides with 71 places between them in the league pyramid.

Barnet, who are looking to become only the third non-league side in five seasons to reach the fifth round, were forced to defend for much of the opening period.

Yoann Barbet saw his glancing header come off the near post and right-back Moses Odubajo hit the other upright with a curling shot from 20 yards.

Championship side Brentford also found another obstacle in 6ft 3in centre-back Dan Sweeney who made two great tackles to deny French striker Maupay.

Barnet keeper Will Huffer was finally beaten when Watkins - linked with a move to Southampton - surged forward and struck a 20-yard shot that crept inside the near post.

Roared on by many of 6,000-strong crowd inside The Hive, the north London side fought back superbly after the interval.

Coulthirst, who was the hero against Sheffield United in the previous round, made it 1-1 five minutes after the break when he toe-poked home following good work by Ephron Mason-Clark on the right.

And three minutes later, the game turned in Barnet's favour when the former Tottenham youth player thrashed home after Brentford failed to clear their area.

Darren Currie's side were in the ascendancy but were then dealt a blow when referee Andy Madley, brother of Bobby, pointed to the spot after he deemed Tutonda to have brought down Watkins. However, the TV replay showed there was no contact between the pair.

Maupay made no mistake from the spot.

The momentum was back in Brentford's favour, and they once more took the lead when Spaniard Canos finished off the slick move which started deep in midfield.

But there was to be one more twist as Sparkes - signed from Dagenham & Redbridge in the summer - had been on the pitch for only five minutes when he took responsibility for a free-kick on the left of the area and fired an unstoppable effort in off the bar.

Odubajo hit the woodwork with another effort late in the game as Brentford tried to avoid a replay, but Barnet clung on.

'Watkins apologised to Tutonda'

After the game, Barnet boss Currie said Watkins had apologised for his role in the second-half penalty incident.

"Watkins apologised to Tutonda," he said. "That tells me everything I need to know."

Currie added: "I am proud of the players and their performance. We were nearly there with the result.

"Both teams will say they had chances, but the buzz around the place when we went in front is memorable.

"The players feel they should have won the game, we went toe-to-toe and every single one of them was excellent."

Brentford boss Thomas Frank was critical of his side's defending in the match.

"Big credit to Barnet because they did everything they could to create a tough game," he told BT Sport.

"We had enough chances to kill the game and when you do not take them, we cannot win a game like this. We gave too many soft goals away.

"We definitely did not underestimate them. I don't know what happened, but it was way too open."