The main attraction when Barnet face Wolves in the newly-sponsored Worthington Cup next month will be the return of Dougie Freedman.

The skilful Scottish U21 international will always be remembered by Bees' fans for his brilliant opportunism and, ironically, for one goal in the same cup competition in particular.

Plucked from the obscurity of QPR Reserves by Ray Clemence in the summer of 1994, Freedman (20) soon made a tremendous impact., hitting the headlines with a goal after 27 seconds that gave Barnet a 1-0 Coca-Cola Cup win over Premiership Manchester City at Underhill.

Barnet matched City for an hour in the return at Maine Road, before going down 4-1 on aggregate, Freedman scoring his second goal of the tie.

A few weeks later, Freedman provided further evidence of his deadly accurate finishing with four goals in a 6-2 home rout of Rochdale.

He ended his first season of league football as Barnet's top scorer with 29 goals, and clearly was not destined to remain at Underhill much longer.

His last appearance for the Bees was in a 3-1 win over Lincoln City the following September, when Freedman signed off with two goals, before joining Palace for a club record £800,000 fee.

Moving on to Wolves, he helped them reach the FA Cup semi-final, where they lost to Arsenal.

"It's a great draw for us," said Bees' boss John Still."We sprung a surprise when we knocked out Norwich, and did well against Middlesbrough. I am sure we'll give Wolves a good game."

The first leg is at Underhill on Tuesday August 11, with the return a week later.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000.Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.