Tonight, Barnet travel to Dean Court to take on League Two promotion challengers, AFC Bournemouth. The Bees go to the south cost with renewed confidence following their 2-0 win at Port Vale at the weekend, the victory ending a run of 10 successive away defeats in the league.
Barnet have now taken 7 points from the last four games, including two wins. Not an amazing record maybe, but prior to the win at home to Aldershot, earlier this month, the Bees had gone 13 league matches without a win, a run going back to early November.
Saturday’s win took the Bees up two places in the table to 16th and they are now 13 points clear of the relegation zone. The two recent wins have done much to ease any relegation fears that had developed as the side fell into free fall. Barnet’s recent improvement in form has coincided with John O’Flynn getting back to goal scoring form with four goals in the last four matches. He now has 14 goals so far this season.
Meanwhile, Bournemouth’s fine season continues despite the fact that they have been subject to a transfer embargo all season. The Cherries are currently 3rd in the table and pushing for an automatic promotion place this season after nearly going down last term after being deducted 17 points at the beginning of the season.
The Cherries have had a tiny blip during the last couple of weeks, losing at Dagenham & Redbridge and then disappointingly, dropping two points at home to struggling Macclesfield at home at the weekend. The Cherries have a good home record having won nine matches at Dean Court this season but are not unbeatable having lost four times in the league at home so far.
Barnet could be without Paul Furlong who incurred an eye injury at Port Vale after producing his best performance for some time. Jake Hyde is expected to come into the side if Furlong fails a fitness test.
Mark Hughes is available following his two match suspension which meant that he missed the Cheltenham and Port Vale matches. However, since the arrival of David Livermore from Brighton, the Bees have only lost one out of four matches and manager, Ian Hendon may stick with the midfield paring of Livermore and Micah Hyde who played at Port Vale. Ismail Yakubu is still out so Clovis Kamdjo is likely to remain at the back alongside Gary Breen.
Bournemouth have a number of injury worries. They are likely to be without defender Ryan Garry and midfielders Sammy Igoe and Joe Partington, while defender Scott Guyett is a long term injury worry.
Saturday’s win and John O’Flynn’s recent flurry of goals will have done the Bees the world of good and given the team some much needed confidence. The Cherries will be looking for three points to keep up in the promotion race but they showed on Saturday that they can slip up against teams in the lower half of the table and there is no reason why the Bees cant do as well as Macclesfield. Barnet Mad are going out on a limb and predicting a 1-0 win for the Bees.