Tomorrow, promotion contenders, Chesterfield come to Underhill in a League Two match against Barnet. Barnet’s disappointing 2-1 defeat at Hereford on Saturday means that the Bees are still not entirely clear of the relegation battle at the bottom of League Two.
The Bees have slumped to 20th in the table, but with Grimsby having lost at home to Northampton on Friday night, the Bees remain 11 points ahead of the Mariners, who are in 23rd place and have a game in hand. The Bees have 42 points from 38 matches.
All the other sides below Barnet in the table all won on Saturday. Cheltenham beat Lincoln City 1-0 and now have 38 points and have played 38 games, the same as Barnet. The Robins remain in 22nd place but are 7 points above Grimsby who have 31 points from 39 games. Lincoln dropped into the bottom six with that defeat and are level on 43 points from 39 games, the same as Macclesfield Town, who drew 1-1 with Aldershot.
Torquay United came from behind to beat Shrewsbury Town 2-1, but remain in 21st place with 40 points from 39 points. Bottom club, Darlington also won, away at Burton Albion by 2-1. They remain in deep trouble though with just 22 points from 37 matches, still 16 points from safety and it looks inevitable that they will start next season in the Blue Square Premier.
Chesterfield, of course, have pressure of a different kind as they are chasing promotion to League One and they did that cause no harm at all on Saturday with a fine 2-0 home win over League Two champions elect, Rochdale. Chesterfield are fifth and may have just a little too much to do to gain an automatic promotion place, but will be looking to consolidate their play-off position by winning at Underhill tomorrow. Chesterfield have won 7 times away in the league this season, so will clearly be a difficult proposition but they have also lost 9 times away from home as well. Their form hasn’t been that good recently, until Saturday at least, having taken just a single point from their previous four matches. Barnet will clearly be hoping to catch the Spireites on an off day!!
Barnet will give top scorer, John O’Flynn a late fitness test, but Ismail Yakubu is still out through injury. New signing, Chris James could be handed his debut after the New Zealand international midfield player was cleared to play tomorrow.
The Bees will be keen to win tomorrow to end a run of four home matches without a victory and to make sure that they don’t get pulled any further into the relegation zone. Other key matches on Easter Monday are at Accrington who are at home to Grimsby, Crewe who play Cheltenham, Northampton who play Torquay, Lincoln who are at home to Morecambe and Bradford City who play Macclesfield.
Barnet Mad predicts a draw in the game against Chesterfield, maybe 1-1.