The Bees bring in the New Year by welcoming Crawley Town to The Hive tomorrow in A three-game week as we look to build on Monday night’s win on the road.
Dean Brennan and his side will be looking to secure their first back-to-back wins since early October, with an opportunity to add more points to the tally in a busy period of fixtures.
Barnet travelled to the Memorial Stadium in their last outing, looking to improve on the Boxing Day stalemate in South Wales, and came away with the 2-0 win, taking six points from six against the Gas across both fixtures this campaign.
A first-half that presented little chances for both sides, but with the hosts having more of the ball, ended with a Mark Shelton free-kick eventually being poked over the line by Adam Senior for his fifth league goal of the season.
Shelton’s spot-kick early in the second 45 was saved by Luke Southwood, which could’ve come back to bite the Bees at full-time, but some fantastic shot-stopping from Cieran Slicker followed by Ryan Glover rounding off the win with a clean strike just minutes before the final whistle saw the Bees leave Bristol with all three points.
Barnet’s last five results:
Bristol Rovers 0-2 Barnet FC
Newport County 0-0 Barnet FC
Barnet FC 1-3 Salford City
Chesterfield FC 3-1 Barnet FC
Barnet FC 4-0 Bristol Rovers
Crawley Town:
The last of the 24 teams for the Bees to tick off before entering the second-half of the campaign and the only relegated team the amber and black army are yet to face, Crawley come into tomorrow’s game sat 20th in the table and without a win in nine.
The Red Devils have managed four wins and seven draws but have lost 12 games so far this campaign and have conceded the third most goals in the division.
On the other hand, the West Sussex side are fifth for shots per 90 in the league but have struggled to turn those opportunities into goals. An example of this is their recent 1-0 defeat to Swindon Town before Christmas, with Crawley having a total 17 shots compared to the Robins’ six.
Crawley suffered defeat to league-leaders Bromley on Monday night. A 43rd-minute Charlie Barker header wasn’t enough as a Michael Cheek hat-trick sealed all three points for the South London side.
Crawley Town’s last five results:
Crawley Town 1-3 Bromley
Crawley Town 1-1 Colchester United
Swindon Town 1-0 Crawley Town
Crawley Town 2-2 Oldham Athletic
Bromley 3-1 Crawley Town
In the opposition dugout:
At the Helm for tomorrow’s opponents is 53-year-old Scott Lindsey, who returned to the club for his second spell in March 2025 when the Red Devils were 12 points from safety in the League One relegation zone.
His previous spell in West Sussex saw him help the club to EFL survival at the end of the 2022-23 season, before guiding the club to League Two promotion the following campaign.
Lindsey has experience in the fourth division with Swindon Town and MK Dons, who finished 19th last season despite being labelled promotion candidates after a promising summer transfer window.
One to watch:
28-year-old Harry McKirdy has been one of Crawley’s standout players so far this season and is the club’s joint top goalscorer with four to his name.
The Aston Villa academy graduate enjoyed multiple EFL loan spells early on in his career, before signing permanently for Carlisle United, followed by what was largely an unsuccessful year-long spell with Port Vale.
The forward’s most prolific period in front of goal came during his season spent with Swindon Town, where he scored 26 goals in 49 appearances across all competitions for the Robins, being named in the Team of the Season after netting 20 goals and notching a further eight assists.
McKirdy’s technical ability and skilfulness allows him to find pockets of space in the final third and create chances for his team and he can operate centrally or in the wider positions.
Last time the two sides met:
The Bees have lost their two most recent meetings with the Reds in the 2017/18 League Two campaign.
Barnet last beat Crawley in both 2015/2016 fixtures. A Bira Dembele brace, added to by a goal from John Akinde and an own goal saw the Bees overcome tomorrow’s opponents at the Hive, before a John Akinde double and a strike from Elliott Johnson gave us the win on the road.
COYB