Tonight, Barnet take on Gillingham at Underhill after last weekend saw probably the Bees’ best performance of the season with their 4-1 home win over Northampton Town, which has seen them climb off the bottom of the League Two table. Gillingham, who had, notoriously, gone over a year without an away win laid that to rest on Saturday with a 1-0 win at freefalling, Oxford United, Barnet’s next league opponents.
Barnet are likely to start with the same eleven that started against Northampton as Mark Byrne is out again with a knee injury sustained after coming on as a substitute on Saturday. Either Clovis Kamdjo or Rossi Jarvis will replace him on the bench.
Gillingham have a number of injuries, like Barnet and Mark Bentley, Dean Rance, Jack Payne and Mark McCammon are definitely out, while Garry Richards, Andy Barcham and Curtis Weston could make the squad. Former Barnet star, Simon King could be on the bench tonight after having being out for 18 months. King was Barnet player of the year in 2007 before moving to Gillingham for £200,000 and was part of the Conference championship winning side of 2005, scoring the goal that clinched promotion in the 3-1 win over Halifax Town. Gillingham captain, Barry Fuller was on loan at Underhill in 2006.
Of course, tonight also sees the return of Bees’ legend and former manager, Ian Hendon who captained Barnet’s 2005 Conference winning side as assistant manager to another former Underhill favourite, Andy Hessenthaller, who was at Barnet from 2006-2007. It will be interesting to see what kind of welcome they get from the Underhill crowd, though it is likely to be a good one.
However, Barnet manager, Mark Stimson could get a very ferocious reception from the travelling Gillingham fans. Stimson, of course, was dismissed by the Kent club at the end of last season after they were relegated for the second time under his management in three seasons. On the credit side, Stimson did get Gillingham promoted in 2009 and, so far anyway, Hessenthaller has not waved a magic wand at the Priestfield, though, of course, Gillingham fans will point to Barnet’s league position under Stimson. One thing for certain, the atmosphere tonight should be electric.
After Saturday’s performance, Mark Stimson will be confident that his new club can put one over his former charges. If they do, the Bees will climb out of the relegation zone at Gillingham’s expense. Tonight is the perfect time to build on Saturday’s win and get a little run going that will take the Bees up the table.
