Barnet’s great run in February continued this week as they notched up wins in Wrexham and Nailsworth (home of Forest Green Rovers) to take a maximum 12 points this month.  Including the home win against Southport at the end of January, it’s five wins from five!  Our excellent form has propelled us up to third place in the table and the play off dream is very much alive.  We are now only one point from second place!  A fantastic effort from the whole squad in the shortest month of the year.

The run is all the more impressive given the 4 games in February came in just 11 days.  Terrible January weather means a lot of Conference sides will be playing catch up in March and April.  The depths (and fitness) of Barnet’s talented squad could really come into its own as other clubs struggle to complete a backlog of fixtures.  Braintree Town could shoot up to second place in the league were they to win the 7 games in hand they have over Barnet!

Perhaps not surprisingly given the fixtures have been packed in this month, there have been a few casualties along the way.  The impressive Luisma Villa and free-scoring Jake Hyde are both out for over a month.  Luisma has been playing really well recently and valiantly came back on the pitch against Grimsby to play the final few minutes when the Bees had used all their substitutes.  His creativity will be a loss.

It goes without saying that losing your top scorer for a period is a big blow, particularly as Hyde was showing his early season form, hitting the winners against both Grimsby and Wrexham.  He will undoubtedly be missed, but with Dani Lopez up front it looks like we have a ready made replacement, whilst Mengerink’s return to fitness (Marciano came on to replace Lopez against Forest Green) is also a boost.  Jake’s injury has also led to the recall of Jon Nurse from Farnborough and when Harry Crawford returns there should be ample cover in the forward positions.  

There is a lot to look forward to in March (as well as my birthday!) as two home games against Woking and Gateshead could see the Bees consolidate their position in the top five before tough looking away trips to Kidderminster and Macclesfield.  However given the Bees’ current form they should not fear a trip to any side in this division and must go into every game confident of getting a victory given recent results.  Come on you Bees!