It's third time lucky for Barnet's traveling support as we take a look at Barnet ahead of tomorrow's game.

Keith Hill has told the Rochdale official site that Barnet are a similar team to ourselves, and he’s right there.

Barnet, even if their ground isn’t up to Spotland’s standards, are a similar sized club to ourselves. And they have to compete with the other teams in League Two in a similar way to how we do. 

Paul Fairclough had to go through an awful lot of rebuilding during the summer with players leaving for the League’s above.

He did this by taking risks on the likes of ex York City Neal Bishop, Anthony Thomas, ex Gillingham Ashley Carew, ex Dagenham & Redbridge striker Cliff Akurang to name but four.

Above: Barnet's Neal Bishop (left) attempts to tackle Burton Albion's Michael Simpson.  

And the season didn’t start too brightly for Barnet with them having to wait till the 1^st of September for their first win of the season, which came against Bradford City.

The win sparked a run of form which saw the club pick up 22 points from the next ten games but the impressive form was something the Bees couldn’t maintain, as they dropped off to what looks like another mid table finish. Which I’d imagine most at Underhill would be quite happy with. 

The 2007/08 has still been quite successful for Paul Fairlcough’s Barnet for a couple of reasons. Barnet reached the 4^th round of the The FA Cup this season for only the second time in their history, knocking out Gillingham, Burton Albion and Swindon Town before eventually losing to Bristol Rovers. 

Barnet also sold striker Liam Hatch to Peterborough United this season for a figure around £150,000. You would normally wonder why a striker at our level would require that sort of fee with only eight goals to his name.

But to say Hatch started off the season on the transfer list and didn’t break into Fairlcough’s side till October, it wasn’t a bad effort to hit eight goals before the transfer window opened. 

Other successes come in the form of Adam Birchall, with the Under 21 Wales International being their top goalscorer with 15 goals this season. There’s also the form of left winger Jason Puncheon attracted the attention of Leeds United with Leeds having a £250,000 bid turned down for the ex Milton Keynes man.

Below: Adam Birchall has been Barnet's main threat for the majority of the season.

As for Barnet’s attempts at playing at Spotland this season, it would be fair to say that the Football Gods owe their travelling support a pint with the Rochdale v Barnet fixture twice falling foul of the weather this season.

The first postponement came around Christmas with the match being called off due to a frozen pitch. With the second postponement being due to a waterlogged pitch. 

And it would seem that Barnet will travel to Spotland with quite a few selection head aches with the Bees missing a couple of key players. Captain Ismail Yakubu will sit out the rest of the season due to a persistent groin injury.

Goalkeepers Lee Harrison (back) and Rob Beckwith (hamstring) could both miss out with YTS product Phil Carpenter ready to step in for Harrison if he’s unable to play tomorrow night. Kenny Gillet won’t be fit in time for tomorrow’s game and Joe Devera and Neal Bishop will both need this weekend’s knocks assessing. 

We all know from last season’s defeat and this season’s draw that Barnet will be far from a walkover unlike the recent sides we’ve come across in recent games.

So let’s hope that we have learned our lesson from our draw with Dagenham and make sure we kill tomorrow’s game off as soon as possible.

Photo: Action Images

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