Good afternoon.
We’ve trained this morning in preparation for our game tomorrow night at Plymouth Argyle.
We leave tomorrow lunchtime for that match.
The players have trained well this morning.
I’ve decided over the weekend to make several changes to our team for this game.
Obviously I won’t name that team until just before kick-off.
The results away from home haven’t been good enough.
The way we’ve played hasn’t been right – that’s obviously down to me, it’s my responsibility.
We haven’t picked up any points and we’ve done absolutely nothing away from home.
It’s time for a change, so tomorrow we’ll be much more cautious.
Basically we’ll play 4-5-1, we’ll play much deeper, and we’ll “park the bus” for want of a better phrase.
I think everybody knows that Plymouth are one of the best teams in the division.
They’ve got a manager in Derek Adams who I met a couple of months ago at a referees’ meeting.
He’s a really nice bloke and he’s been very successful up in Scotland.
For me personally, I think Plymouth Argyle will be the champions of this division.
They’re very consistent, they’re very steady, and I think they’ve got the players and the tools to move through the division.
They’ve also got a fantastic centre-forward in Reuben Reid.
So we all know it’s going to be a tough game.
That’s why we’ve had to change it all and go with a different way of playing to how we normally play.
Really that’s out of respect to Derek and the team that he’s got together.
He’s made some good acquisitions, bringing them down from Scotland.
All of us will have to be on the top of our game to get something from this.
It’s been very disappointing away form this season, after our brilliant away form last year – it’s been a shock to everyone’s system.
Kevin Lisbie has trained this morning, which has been a bit boost to everybody.
The only problem is that I kept calling him Derek because I’d forgotten his name!
That made everybody smile!
But Kevin has trained, and that’s a big bonus for all of us.
Obviously he won’t be fit for tomorrow or Saturday – but maybe for two or three weeks time, when he might have a little sniff of getting on the bench.
As everybody knows our team is extremely fit, and everyone who wants to play for Barnet has to be in tip-top condition to wear the Barnet shirt.
I’m looking forward to ‘Derek’ being available to play for us in a couple of weeks time!
There’s no point talking about last Saturday, apart from the fact that a number of people I’ve bumped into said that Dagenham were poor.
That’s the kind of attitude that I despise, and do everything in my life to avoid.
Dagenham had only lost one game in their last five, and we played extremely well to beat them.
It’s nothing to do with them being poor, we played well – that’s how I view it.
Thank you for all your support on Saturday.
If you are able to make the trip tomorrow then I’ll see you there.
If you can’t then we’ll try our very best to get at least a point and bring it back to London.
Cheers.
Martin.
