Barnet are at home to Port Vale in a League Two match tomorrow. The Bees will be hoping that conditions ill be better than they were for last Saturday’s match at home to Hereford when high winds ruined the match and the home side failed to cope with the conditions and were fortunate to gain a point.
Port Vale lost 2-1 at home to Rotherham last Saturday, their first league defeat in seven matches. However, during the week the won 1-0 away at Stevenage Borough in a replayed FA Cup match. They are at home to Huddersfield Town in the 2nd round. They went out of the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy recently losing on penalties to Bradford City.
In League Two, Port Vale are placed 13th with 20 points from 16 matches and have pretty match identical home and away records, having won twice, drawn four times and lost twice at home and on their travels.
Vale have been in very good form away from home having drawn away at Dagenham & Redbridge last time out and won both their previous away league matches before that; at Crewe and Shrewsbury. So they are no slouches away from home, but have not won enough of their home games so far.
The last time the two clubs met was on the last day of last season when Vale won 2-1 at Underhill. Both clubs ended on 48 points for the season, the Bees finishing just above Vale on goal difference in 17th place, Vale having been relegated from League One in 2008. If the Bees win tomorrow it will be their first ever win over Vale, having drawn one and lost three of their previous meetings.
During the summer, Vale, who are managed by Micky Adams, brought in a number of players to strengthen their squad including, former Morecambe centre back, Adam Yates, midfielders, Doug Loft and Tommy Fraser from Adams’ previous club, Brighton and they have recently signed Bristol Rovers striker, Lewis Haldane on loan. Two players to watch out for are their prolific striker, Marc Richards and midfielder Louis Dodds who impressed in the match at Underhill last season.
The Bees have a number of injury problems, all of them in the defence with both right backs, Joe Devera and Ryan O’Neill still out as well as centre back, Gary Breen who could be out until Christmas. The situation has been made worse by the news that Clovis Kamdjo is now likely to be out for some time too leaving manager, Ian Hendon with just four fit defenders. Ahmed Deen is expected to continue at right back with Daniel Leach, who has missed a lot of games through injury himself, coming in alongside Ismail Yakubu. It is possible that Hendon may seek to bring in a loan signing to strengthen up the defence, though there is only a week before the period when clubs can make loan signings ends.
Barnet have brought in youth team players, Ryan Scott, a centre back and Kofi Lockhart-Adams. Both players played in the Herts Senior Cup match against Hemel Hempstead this week.
Port Vale expect to have centre backs, Luke Prosser and Gareth Owen and midfield player, Tommy Fraser back for tomorrow’s match.
With the weather forecast predicting rain and wind again tomorrow, there is the chance that conditions might be similar to last Saturday which would be a great pity as it would probably mean another ruined match as with the game against Hereford. If this is the case then it will be a very difficult match for the Bees as Port Vale may well adjust better to the conditions. In any case, Vale will be hard to beat and Barnet will have to add some variety to their current game which is tending to rely too much on Adomah and Bolasie conjuring up some magic. There is also too much pressure on John O’Flynn getting the goals and Paul Furlong’s goals seemed to have dried up at the moment. It will be interesting to see if Nicky Deverdics is given a full game possibly at the expense of Micah Hyde with Mark Hughes getting the captaincy.
Barnet’s home form has been the reason that they are still at the top end of the table and a win tomorrow is important to maintain the current push for the play offs. However, the Bees recent form has been patchy and after last Saturday’s game it is hard to see Barnet getting more than a point from tomorrow’s game. With that in mind, Barnet Mad predicts a 1-1 draw tomorrow.