Barnet make the short journey to Borehamwood for this afternoon’s pre season friendly, the last scheduled pre season game before the League Cup match at Birmingham. ‘The Wood’ play in the Blue Square South, where they finished 8th last season. Sam Cox, who was on loan from Barnet, was voted player of the year at Meadow Park last season, but he is now expected to sign for Hayes & Yeading. Other players who have played for both clubs in recent years include, Jude Sterling, Danny Hart, Lee Roache and Stephane Seanla. Boreham Wood’s current squad includes another ex Bee in Omer Riza, who was on loan at Underhill in 2000/01.
Barnet have played Boreham Wood six times in competitive matches, all except the first in the Herts Senior Cup. The first meeting was back in 1973 in the Studio Cup which Barnet won 4-1 thanks to goals by Dickie Plume, Tony Turley and two from Les Eason.
The next meeting was in the Herts Senior Cup Final of 1980 which Barnet won 1-0 with a goal from Steve Robinson. In 1992, Mark Carter, Dave Barnett and Paul Showler scored in a 3-0 semi final win in the County Cup semi final. Barnet went on to defeat Hemel Hempstead 4-1 in the final.
In 1996, Barnet won 3-2 in the 3rd round of the HSC with two goals from Mark Cooper and 1 from Linvoy Primus. The Bees won the trophy again that year beating Watford 2-1 in the final. In 2000, Barnet again won, this time by 4-3 in the 2nd round with two goals apiece for Danny Brown and Wayne Purser.
The last meeting was in 2004 in the HSC semi final and Barnet looked as though they were going through to the final when they took a two goal lead at Meadow Park through Soloman Henry and Tony Taggart, but ‘The Wood’ fought back to win 3-2 in extra time. The first time that Boreham Wood have beaten the Bess in a competitive match.
After Barnet’s heavy 8-0 midweek defeat against Watford, in a behind closed doors friendly, Mark Robson will be hoping for a more promising performance today to take him into the new season. Danny Uchechi, who played in the 4-1 defeat by Charlton last week, is expected to get another chance and there may also be another trialist playing as well.