Barnet won their second pre-season friendly, winning 1-0 over League One side, Charlton Athletic at Underhill this afternoon. Bees’ manager, Mark Stimson gave former Sheffield United and Watford striker, Steve Kabba a chance to show that he was worth a contract by playing him for the first hour of the match. Other trialists on display were, former Swindon winger, Mark Marshall and Daniel Leach who was aiming to show Stimson that he is worth a new contract at Underhill after being released at the end of last season.
Kabba played up front alone with Ricky Holmes, scorer of the Barnet goal in the 1-0 midweek win over Watford, having to settle for a place on the bench. With Danny Dennehy still out with a dead leg, Leach played alongside skipper, Anwar Uddin in the centre of the defence and Glen Southern, Rossi Jarvis and Mark Byrne made up a three man midfield with Marshall and Glenn Poole playing out wide midfield.
Barnet had the better of the first half with Kabba impressing with a lively performance up front. He looked a very able target man and was not afraid to take players on either and came close to scoring with a couple of shots from just outside the area. The Charlton defenders found it hard to win the ball from him to as he was quite tenacious in his challenges and was able to win the ball back on a couple of occasions. He gave a promising performance and was given a rousing reception when he came off after the hour to be replaced by Holmes.
By then, Barnet had taken a 56th minute lead through former Brentford man, Glenn Poole. Mark Byrne was played through into the penalty area and he was able to play the ball across the area for Poole to hook a shot over Elliot, the Charlton keeper, and into the top corner of the net to give the Bees a deserved lead.
Marshall, who had impressed with his pace on the right side of midfield, was replaced by Sam Cox and Poole by Danny Hart and the visitors, who had been very poor, began to come into the game a bit more with the Valiant’s’ winger, Scott Wagstaff managing to put over a couple of decent crosses into the Bees’ penalty box. However, the Barnet defence were able to deal with these and some quite routine long range efforts and Barnet were able to hang on reasonably comfortably for a deserved 1-0 win.
All in all, it was a promising performance for Barnet’s new look team with the three man central midfield of Southern, Byrne and Jarvis particularly impressing with their awareness and neat passing skills. Daniel Leach gave a solid performance at the back, despite some less than convincing clearances, and looked comfortable alongside Uddin at the heart of the defence and may have done enough to earn a contract. After the match, Mark Stimson said that he was still ‘looking for new faces’ and would not rule out signing Kabba but added that it was ‘early days’.
And indeed, it is early days, but the way that the Bees’ players, like Parkes and Southam, for instance, stood up for themselves and kept things tight and how Jarvis, Byrne, Southam, Marshall etc made it difficult for Charlton's players to settle on the ball as the Bees' players went around hunting in packs, so to speak was very promising.
Looking further ahead, I think that Stimson will go for a central midfield of Southam, Jarvis and Byrne as he did today. I think he will then go for either playing two wide players, probably Poole and Marshall and then playing a big striker (Kabba?) to lead the line or just one wide player with Holmes and say, Kabba up front, maybe depending on the opposition or if we are at home or away.
The first choice defence is most likely to be Cole, Devera, Uddin, Dennehy and Parkes. Luke Prosser is a possible signing as cover for Dennehy and Uddin at the back, but it’s not certain that Prosser will get a contract as Stimson seems very keen to give Daniel Leach a real chance of a contract and the young Australian might just get the nod.
With Kamdjo and Yorke also available, plus having Devera to call on, Stimson will not be short of cover in the centre of defence and presumably, Cox and Hughes are seen as cover for Devera, But we would still appear to need cover for Jordan Parkes at left back, though Cox can play on the left, just as Parkes can also play on the right and Leach is left sided, so maybe Stimson may be looking at him as both centre and left back cover, rather like Anthony Charles?
So two 1-0 wins in a week, there’s not much you can more than that is there? Bring on Southampton and Peterborough!!
Bees 1 Valiants 0
Barnet: Cole; Devera, Uddin, Leach, Parkes (Prosser 81); Marshall (Cox 68), Jarvis, Southam, Byrne, Poole (Hart 63); Kabba (Holmes 60).
Charlton: Elliot, Solly, Jackson (Mambo 73), Dailly, Doherty, Wagstaff, Semedo, McCormack (Stavinrou 19, Racon 46), Reid (Davisson 88), Bauza, Sodje (Thorvaldsson 73).
Att: 818
