City hope for continued good form against Barnet

By Nathan Jackson
December 13 2007

City will hoping to secure their 6th straight win over Barnet. City have won every meeting between the side since Barnet came from 3-0 down to beat City back in the 2000/1 season. City need a win just to re-boost a bit of confidence after last week's defeat, but with Barnet on the slide it could be a case of City facing the right team at the right time, although this game will be far from easy.

Back in 2000/1 the Imps travelled to Underhill and found themselves 3-0 up very quickly, a Barnet comeback later and the Imps left London without a point. The return game saw City win 2-0 before Barnet were relegated on the final day of the season.

4 years later and Barnet won the Conference and were promoted back to the Football League, where they would meet a Lincoln side who had just lost to Southend in the Playoff Final. The sides didn't meet each other until January 14th when Guilano Grazioli gave Barnet a lead at Sincil Bank, a heavily deflected Simon Yeo goal, followed by efforts from McCombe, Robinson and Kerr saw City win 4-1. Exactly a month later and City found themselves 2-0 at Underhill with about 25 minutes left, quickfire goals from McCombe and Birch saw City draw level before Nat Brown gave the Imps a dramatic winner late on.

Last season saw City, and mainly Jamie Forrester, destroy Barnet at Underhill as the Imps won 5-0 in an October that saw the Imps score 14 times in 4 League games to go top of the table. The return game at Sincil Bank was slightly more even and thankfully Lee Frecklington scored a stunner to give the Imps a less than deserved win.

City are starting to pick up again with improved performances, a relatively large 13 shots on target against Hereford last weekend. City still lost but the performances in recent weeks have definately improved, whereas Barnet's form has gone to pot. They haven't won in the League since October 20th, a victory at Wrexham, that after a relatively decent start to the season that saw them surprisingly challenge for the playoffs.

City go into the game with no fresh injury worries but Lee Beevers has stated he hopes to be back in contention soon. It is unlikely he will play on Saturday though meaning that Owain Warlow will more than likely go to left-back to cover Gary Croft's suspension. He will more than likely join Hone, Bencharif and Green in defence in front of Ben Smith.

Freck, Kerr and N'Guessan will more than likely start in midfield, with possibly Louis Dodds or Jamie Hand covering for Warlow's shift into left-back. Forrester and Wright will more than likely start upfront.

Barnet do have a fairly decent squad, with Jason Puncheon being arguably the stand out player. Unfortunately his brief stint as the division's top scorer is well and truly over and his goal drought of just 1 goal in 13 games has coincided with Barnet's slow slip down the table.

A win for City could see City move up to 20th and there are several games at the weekend where team's around us face eachother. Brentford travel to Wrexham and Grimsby host Mansfield. A win for Barnet could see them move back up to 8th place.