Barnet meet Accrington Stanley in the FA Cup tomorrow at the Interlink Express Stadium in a 2nd round tie. Barnet beat Darlington 3-1 at home in the 1st round with two goals from John O’Flynn and one from Micah Hyde, while Accrington defeated Salisbury Town 2-1 at home with goals from Jimmy Ryan and Michael Symes.
Accrington are currently 17th in the table, 5 points behind the Bees and have won four and lost four of their eight league matches at home so far this season. Barnet have lost their last six competitive first team away matches and have not won away since they won 3-1 at Northampton in early September. The Bees of course crashed to a humiliating 5-1 defeat at Cheltenham on Tuesday night. Accrington’s match at home to Macclesfield was postponed due to the awful weather in that part of the country but tomorrow’s cup match looks almost certain to go on.
Both clubs have signed players on loan this week before the loan deadline expired yesterday. Accrington have signed Blackburn central defender, Johnny Flynn who impressed when he was on loan at Chester recently. However, the debt ridden Conference club were not able to extend his loan and he has signed for Accrington until January. Flynn is cup tied after playing for Chester in an earlier round and so will not be available for tomorrow’s game. Accrington have also signed Liverpool goalkeeper, Dean Bouzanis who will be available for tomorrow’s game.
As mentioned elsewhere on the Barnet Mad website, the Bees have signed three players on loan; Dean Sinclair, Craig McAllister and Calum Butcher and manager, Ian Hendon is waiting to hear if they will be available for tomorrow’s cup match.
Accrington have midfield players who can score goals such as Robert Grant and Jimmy Ryan and a useful striker in Michael Symes and have been in reasonably good from lately. With Barnet having such a poor record away from home, it is difficult to see the Bees coming away with a result, especially after the drubbing they received at Cheltenham. However, poor runs do have to end sometime and with it being a cup match rather than another league game, it could be that the Bees will put their awful away form behind them and get a result tomorrow. With the winners going into the draw with the big Premiership clubs there will no lack of incentive for both clubs. That is, of course if the whether doesn’t claim the game as is quite possible. If that is the case, then both clubs will probably know their potential 3rd round opponents by the time the match takes place.
It would be nice to be optimistic about tomorrow’s game, should it go ahead, but, even though there is almost certain to be an improvement from Cheltenham, Barnet Mad, sadly, is going to predict a defeat and elimination from the FA Cup for the Bees, with Accrington maybe winning 3-1.