Martin Allen felt Barnet’s defeat against Luton Town underlined the quality of side the Bees face in League Two this season and revealed he had tried to sign Hatters captain Scott Cuthbert in the summer.

John Still’s side ran out 2-0 winners at Kenilworth Road on Saturday with Northern Ireland international Josh McQuoid – signed on a free transfer from Premier League bound Bournemouth in the summer – instrumental in both goals.

The Hatters also spent a fee in the region of £100,000 to bring the scorer of the second goal, Cameron McGeehan, to the club in the summer from Norwich City.

But it was Scottish defender Cuthbert who could have been running out in black and amber in a parallel universe after Allen admitted he had failed to lure the former Leyton Orient man to The Hive this summer.

Cuthbert was the second defender who opted to join the Hatters instead of the Bees after Magnus Okuonghae – now on loan at Hartlepool United – moved to Bedfordshire instead of Barnet in the summer.

Asked afterwards if that calibre of players on show at Kenilworth Road underlined the challenge facing Barnet this season, Allen said: “It does underline the quality we’re up against and some of the individuals they’ve got in their group and what they’ve paid for them in transfer fees and what they’ve paid for them in wages.

“I tried my best in the summer to get their captain to come and join us. I did my upmost to get their captain, Scott Cuthbert, to join us at Barnet but we can’t get anywhere near those sorts of salaries.

“But we drew a line under that a couple of months ago where we said what other people spend, what other people do, what they’ve got in their accounts, that ain’t going to ever be brought up.

“We’ve got what we’ve got, we play with what we’ve got. As long as everyone has a go and we have a really good go in every game we play I’m not too bad.”