As Winter began to descend upon us last season, we embarked on an incredible run that seemed to come out of nowhere. We beat Fylde, we beat Bromley, we beat Havant & Waterlooville, we beat Hartlepool United and then, after a fairly underwhelming draw at home to ten-man Halifax, we earned back-to-back wins against the top two in the league, Salford City and Leyton Orient.
All in all, we earned 19 points from a possible 21; everything was going brilliantly and a vibrant feel was restored to the club. Then we played Barnet at home and it all dissipated from there. We plummeted down the table as quick as we ascended it, only accumulating 22 points throughout the next four months. Relegation fears were reignited and that Barnet game was the start of the decline. Fast forward ten months and Barnet will set their sights on piercing another unbeaten run of ours in a game that could prove to be massive given that both sides are nicely perched in the play-off places ahead of kick-off. Barnet sit fifth in the table, above us by virtue of a solitary goal. A win for either side today would be huge, especially as three points often prove to be the difference between winning the league and finishing second, getting a home semi-final or not and even making the play-offs altogether. Recently we seemed to have found the right balance between attack and defence. As many people expected, the eagerly-awaited first clean sheet at Maidenhead had a big uplifting effect on the team and we've since managed three more shutouts in our last four games, meaning the only goal we've conceded in five games has been that unfortunate deflected strike at home to Hartlepool. Of course, we've not found the net for two Saturdays running, although that doesn't discredit the chances we've created in those games. Last weekend we encountered a Chorley side that set up purely to nullify our threats, which is perhaps a testament to how well we've been playing recently. Today Barnet will come at us, so unlike last weekend there will be spaces to exploit. Barnet's recent form has been mixed, with two victories, a draw and two defeats in the past five games. A midweek trip to Fylde wouldn't have been ideal ahead of preparations for this game, but the momentum generated from their eye-opening 4-0 win should counteract the fact that they've only had three days to focus on Dagenham, compared to the six we've had to look ahead solely to today's game. Darren Currie's team have threats littered throughout their squad, highlighted by the four different scorers they had in midweek. Much like the Daggers they don't have a primary threat and, just as we have Balanta, Quigley, Luque and Dobson chipping in, the Bees have Simeon Akinola, Wes Fonguck, Josh Walker, Alfie Pavey and several others who are capable of providing an individual threat to us today. That threat might be heightened by the absence of Luke Croll, who was sent off against Chorley last weekend. Thankfully, Peter Taylor confirmed at Thursday's Fans' Forum that Kenny Clark is fine to start against Barnet, so it's likely that Liam Gordon will come into the starting XI at left-back. Chike Kandi and Mitch Brundle are still unavailable, but should be in contention for next Saturday's trip to Stockport. So today's game is finely poised and it should be an open, entertaining contest between two evenly-matched, creative teams. The finer margins might just settle this one.
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January 2024
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