Barnet v Aldershot Town Match Preview – Tuesday 26th March 2019
Aldershot Town look to make it two consecutive wins after Saturday’s comfortable 2-0 victory at Boreham Wood. We travel to The Hive tomorrow evening to face Barnet in our rearranged fixture as the Bees will be hoping to four games unbeaten after they drew 0-0 at Salford City on the weekend. Chris Woods previews the action…
Shots Squad:
Gary Waddock is nearing a fully-fit squad; Lewis Kinsella is close to recovering from his knee injury sustained against Gateshead, he’s joined on the injury list by George Fowler who is a long-term absentee, Matt Bozier and Jake Cole, who injured his hamstring in the warm-up at Boreham Wood on Saturday, are both doubtful. James Rowe has continued his recovery by getting some minutes with the U23s.
Opposition:
Name: Barnet FC
Founded: 1888
Nickname: The Bees.
Manager: Darren Currie
Stadium: The Hive (Capacity: 6,205)
2017-18 league position: 23rd (Sky Bet League Two)
2018-19 current National League position: 17th
Brief History:
Formed in 1888 as Chipping Barnet, they have spent the majority of their 130-years in non-league football, winning various honours such as the FA Amateur Cup in 1946, Southern League Cup in 1976 and Conference League Cup in 1989. They were promoted to the Football League for the first time in 1991 but have bobbed up and down three times since. They again won promotion in 2005 and 2015, but, alas, on the final day of last season were relegated despite a 3-0 win over basement side Chesterfield. Famous former players include Dougie Freedman, Linvoy Primus, Yannick Bolasie, Jason Puncheon, Jimmy Greaves, Alan Pardew, Mark Lawrenson and, of course, Edgar Davids.
The Gaffer:
Darren Currie began his coaching career whilst at Boreham Wood, joining in 2011 as player/assistant manager. He then moved to Dagenham & Redbridge in 2012 as development coach whilst still registered as a player. Following John Still’s departure to Luton Town, Currie was promoted to assistant manager at the Daggers. He had a stint as caretaker manager before becoming Still’s assistant following his return to Dagenham in 2015. Currie then moved to former-club Barnet with Still for the start of this season and was promoted to Bees manager when Still temporarily retired in December. Currie’s managerial career has already seen some highs as his Barnet side beat Sheffield United in the FA Cup 3rd Round and took Brentford to a replay the round after.
Key Players:
Barnet forward Dave Tarpey experienced the highs and lows of football in a matter of weeks when he made a dream move to the Football League. After bagging 87 goals in 124 appearances for Maidenhead United, including 44 goals in 41 National League South matches in 2016-17, he went on to get seven goals in six games following promotion. He picked up a serious injury in just his second match for the Bees ruling him out for the entire campaign. After a stop-start campaign this season, including loan spells back at Maidenhead and with Woking in the National League South, Tarpey has returned to the Barnet side and scored his first Bees goal in last weeks win over Harrogate Town.
John Still raided former-club Dagenham in the summer bringing Mark Cousins, Craig Robson, Dan Sparkes, Charlee Adams and Andre Boucaud with him from Victoria Road. The Bees also signed two of Aldershot’s key players from the side that made the play-offs last season in Callum Reynolds and Cheye Alexander. Wesley Fonguck and Shaquille Coulthirst also offer a goal threat with 15 league goals between the pair of them this season.
Referee:
Tuesday’s referee is Tom Reeves. He hasn’t refereed a Shots match before and has issued 45 yellow cards and 2 red cards in the 12 National League games he has officiated in this season. The last game he refereed was at The Hive when Barnet lost 1-0 to Sutton United last month.
Commentary:
BBC Surrey Sport’s Rob Worrall and a special guest will be covering the game live on Saturday afternoon. Tune-in to the BBC Sport website or BBC Sport App from 7:35pm for full match commentary. To interact, tweet @RobShot66.
