Barnet meet Bournemouth tonight at Underhill in a League Two match. Bournemouth are the current League Two leaders with 36 points from 18 matches and have a one point lead over second placed, Rochdale. Barnet are currently 11th in League Two with 26 points from 18 matches and despite a poor run of form which has seen them take just two pints from their last four league matches are just two pints off the play offs and are unbeaten at home in the league.
Bournemouth have an excellent away record in the league having won five and lost only two out of nine games so far this season, so the Bees will have a very hard job maintaining their unbeaten home record. The Cherries last away defeat was back in September when they lost, surprisingly, 2-1 at Hereford.
At the weekend, Barnet ended their run of six successive away defeats with a late 2-2 draw at Accrington Stanley in the 2nd round of the FA Cup. Bournemouth’s involvement in the cup ended with a 2-1 home defeat by Notts County, despite the fact that Brett Pitman had put the Cherries ahead. It was the home grown striker’s 11th goal of the season and he is very much the player to watch for in Eddie Howe’s talented young squad. Another player likely to make an appearance is the very experienced Steve Fletcher, who has played over 600 times for the Cherries. Fletcher, a great favourite at Dean Court, re-joined Bournemouth from Crawley Town in January after being released by Bournemouth in 2007.
The Cherries' squad is mostly the same as at the end of last season, largely due to the Football League imposing a transfer embargo on the club, which has limited the size of Eddie Howe’s squad, which contains a number of players produced by the club’s youth system. This has, however, had the positive affect of producing a tight squad who know how each other plays inside out, though it does create a problem when players are out injured as now when the players available are down to the bare bones. Eddie Howe may be forced to include experienced midfield player, Sammy Igoe, who has yet to play for the Cherries this season and is still suffering from knee and shin problems. However, keeper, Shwan Jalal is expected to play after missing Saturday’s cup match.
Barnet are still without long term injured defenders, Ryan O’Neill, Joe Devera, Gary Breen and Clovis Kamdjo. However, the Bees have their three new loan signings, Craig McAllister, Calum Butcher and returning hero, Dean Sinclair available to face Bournemouth. Manager, Ian Hendon will have to decide whether to play the new faces or not, bearing in mind that Sinclair has only played 30 minutes in a Charlton reserve match last week after returning from injury and is likely to be not fully match fit yet. However, Butcher, an 18 year old central defender from Tottenham, who can also play at right back could replace Daniel Leach at the back and Hendon may include McAllister, on loan from Exeter City, in place of Paul Furlong who hasn’t found the back of the net since September and may need a rest and a chance to recharge his batteries. There are also strong claims for a place in the starting line up from Nicky Deverdics and Jake Hyde and this does demonstrate the greater depth that Hendon has compared to the squad that he inherited from Paul Fairclough almost a year ago.
Last season, the Bees completed the double over Bournemouth, winning 2-0 at Dean Court over Christmas in what was Paul Fairclough’s last game as manager. Albert Adomah scored both of the goals. In the game at Underhill, in April, Paul Furlong scored his 200th goal in senior football, in a match which clinched League Two safety for the Bees.
This match is likely to be a real challenge for the Bees and for Ian Hendon and will give the young Bees’ manager a good idea on how far his promising side have progressed and if John O’Flynn’s last minute equaliser at Accrington on Saturday is the catalyst for a return to the form that took the Bees to the top of League Two earlier this season. So far this season, Barnet’s home form has proved to be the main source of points for the Bees, even though they have dropped four points after the two goalless draws at home to Hereford and Port Vale.
It’s a difficult game to call, but Barnet Mad is going to be optimistic and predict that Barnet will maintain their unbeaten home record, but maybe not quite manage to get all three points and so we are going for a draw, perhaps 2-2.