Martin Allen says that he is expecting a very tough test as his side take on Alfreton Town at North Street looking to maintain their position at the top of the Vanarama Conference table.
Barnet currently lead the chasing pack by one point following last weekend’s 5-0 victory over Welling United at The Hive, a performance and result that Martin says pleased him greatly given the Wings’ recent form:
“I think it was an impressive win. Many people have said that Welling were a poor team but it was only three weeks ago that Welling drew away at Gateshead 1-1 and it was only a couple of weeks ago that Welling won away at Lincoln City 2-0.
“So Welling are not a poor team, they are a good team. But on the day we took our chances and as it panned out we dominated the game – so it was a very, very good performance.”
Martin spent Tuesday night watching two of the Bees’ next three opponents in action as Alfreton drew 0-0 at home to Dartford, and having seen the Reds record a fifth clean sheet in six games he says that he is under no illusions just how difficult they will be to crack on Saturday:
“I think they have only conceded one goal in six games which is a fantastic record. Nicky Law always manages to put together good teams on shoestring budgets – I don’t actually think that he gets the credit that he deserves.
“He is a very good manager and they are a good team – you don’t have that record in terms of goals against through being disorganised and undisciplined. They have conceded the fewest goals during the last six games of all the teams in this division and they were very unlucky the other night not to win.
“You can see how they haven’t conceded many goals. The goalkeeper is very strong, the back four are outstanding and they all work very hard together as a team to stop the opposition from scoring. They have got two outstanding centre-backs so it is going to be a very difficult game for us.
“As always at this stage of the season – as we have seen from my previous spells at Barnet – teams at the bottom can be very, very dangerous and arguably more dangerous than the teams at the top so it will be a hard game.”
The manager also revealed that certain players would be undergoing late fitness tests on Saturday ahead of the game, but that he had complete faith in his squad no matter who takes to the field tomorrow ahead of what he is expecting to be another exciting weekend in the Vanarama Conference:
“We have got a few knocks that we are monitoring and there will be fitness tests on Saturday morning for a couple of our players so we can’t really do any work with anybody – we have just got to get prepared for the game and get ourselves ready.
“The players that have come into the team have done very well. We have used a lot of players throughout the week and I am pleased with the decision that we made to keep these players, stay loyal to these players and help these players to get better rather than bring people in and upset other players in our squad and disappoint people which other clubs have decided to do.
“I can imagine that there are an awful lot of very unhappy players at quite a few clubs at this moment in time that have got so close and have just been bombed out so I am pleased that we are not having that at our club.
“I think we all realise that there is still a long, long way to go. All of us have seen that things can change very quickly. There are still six games to go and we have got to be at our very, very best for every game.
“I think we are going to have a lot of supporters up there on Saturday – it is only a couple of hours up that motorway so it is an easy journey and we are of course all looking forward to another very exciting weekend.”
