The Bees are back in league action this weekend when they welcome Sutton United to The Hive London on Saturday.
Darren Currie’s side go into the game off the back of a 3-1 defeat away to Brentford in the FA Cup fourth round replay on Tuesday night. Sergi Canos opened the scoring early on before Julian Jeanvier doubled the Championship side’s lead just after the half-hour mark. Neal Maupay made it 3-0 with 20 minutes to go before David Tutonda gave the travelling 1.6k Barnet fans something to cheer about moments later.
Last Meeting:
The last time these two sides met was back in 1991, Barnet clinching a 1-0 win at Underhill in the Conference fixture that day.
It proved to be a successful season for the Bees that campaign as they finished top on 87 points. However, it was a completely different story for Sutton who were relegated to the Isthmian League after finishing in 21st.
Manager: Paul Doswell
Paul Doswell has been at Sutton for over a decade now, making him the longest serving manager in England’s top five divisions.
He took charge of the U’s in 2008 after they were relegated to the Isthmian Premier League. Since then, Doswell has helped the club to two promotions, taking his side to the National League for the first time since 1999. During Sutton’s first season back in England’s fifth tier, they also reached the fifth round of the FA Cup, their greatest ever finish in the tournament. More records were broken last season too as Doswell guided Sutton to a third placed finish in the National League, their all-time highest league position as they clinched a play-off spot. However, they missed out on promotion to League Two after losing to Boreham Wood in the semi-final so this season, they’ll be hoping to go one better.
Before arriving at Sutton, he also enjoyed success with Eastleigh, guiding them to three successive promotions from the Wessex League to the Conference South.
One to Watch: Craig Eastmond
Craig Eastmond joined Sutton in 2015 and has gone on to be a very important asset to the team.
During his first season at the U’s, he helped his side to National League South play-off glory before picking up the club’s Player of the Year and Players Player of the Year award.
The midfielder has plenty of EFL experience under his belt too having played for Millwall, Colchester, Wycombe and Yeovil aswell as featuring for Arsenal in the Premier League.
Last season proved to be another successful one for Eastmond as he was named in the National League Team of the Season and he’ll be hoping for similar success at the end of this campaign.
For now though, his focus will be purely on helping the U’s clinch three points tomorrow.
Recent League Form:
Sutton, who sit sixth, five points off the top three, have won three times in their last five league games.
The U’s ended 2018 with a 2-1 home victory over Aldershot Town but began the New Year on the receiving end of the same score-line away at Bromley. However, they quickly returned to winning ways four days later, winning 2-1 again, this time at home to Harrogate. They then lost 3-2 to Eastleigh but go into tomorrow’s game off the back of a 1-0 win over Ebbsfleet.
As for their away form, Sutton have won six out of their 15 league games on the road so far this season.
Playing four more games than the Bees, Sutton have bagged 41 goals this season, 15 more than Barnet but have conceded more goals, letting in 34 in comparison to the 32 the Bees have let in.
Last 5 league games: WLWLW
Connections:
Byron Harrison spent the back end of the 2017-18 season on loan at Sutton from Barrow and scored four goals in 14 league games for the U’s.
As for Sutton, defender Aswad Thomas spent a short spell on loan at Barnet in 2008 from Charlton Athletic, making only two appearances for the club in League Two.
Midfielder Nicky Bailey began his senior career at Sutton before leaving in 2004 for the Bees where he made over 100 appearances for the club in three years and was part of the Conference winning squad of 2005. Fast forward eight years and he was back at Barnet but featured on only four occasions before re-joining Sutton in 2016.
