The Official Barnet Match Thread (Sponsored by the best writing implement "for all your penultimate match needs")

There may have been positives to take from last Saturday’s fixture with Grimsby, but when the final score reads 1–4 to the opposition, they tend to get a little lost. Yet again, the bingo card of Gills deficiencies was well filled by full-time, as we shipped three or more goals at home for the fourth time in less than three months. When the usually dependable Glenn Morris is a major catalyst in that lamentable collapse, you know the game is up. Te may have been positives to take from last Saturday’s fixture with Grimsby, but when the final score reads 1–4 to the opposition, they tend to get a little lost. Yet again, the bingo card of Gills deficiencies was well filled by full-time, as we shipped three or more goals at home for the fourth time in less than three months. When the usually dependable Glenn Morris is a major catalyst in that lamentable collapse, you know the game is up. The odds on us conceding sufficient goals in our final two games to overtake the goals-against column (69) for the 2021/22 relegation season must be short indeed.

I was going to pore over the miserable stats that make up our season, but there’s been enough depressing posts on here recently and, by this point, it’s just going over well-trodden ground. The vast majority of fans know that the season has been an unquenchable bin fire since the home defeat to Harrogate on 27th September. Virtually every conceivable metric is worse than last season, itself a largely dreadful trudge following a bright start from one of the pre-season promotion favourites.

Tomorrow we make the short trip round the M25 to The Hive, home of Barnet: a side still harbouring faint play-off ambitions and sitting four points adrift of the final PO spot. What other side could they possibly want to come to town to assist those claims than the side bottom of the last-10 form table, who have shipped virtually 2.5 goals a match in that time while earning an average of one point every other game? Damn facts keep getting in the way of my attempted positive narrative.

On the bright side, it’s another staggering turnout by Gills fans for the game, with well over 1,000 tickets sold for a first competitive meeting of the sides at The Hive. Many of those in the away end will apparently be donning their nicest Hawaiian shirts to witness the end of an away campaign that has returned exactly one point a game. On that note, away games this season, while not exactly ripping up any trees, have seen us register five wins, although all of these came against sides in the lower reaches of the table. Sadly, that doesn't lend much hope for the outcome tomorrow.

The head-to-head has Barnet leading by eight wins to seven, with five draws, in what is usually a keenly fought contest. The first league meeting of the sides came in 1991–92, and in a parallel with this season, Barnet were newly promoted from the Conference. The sides played out a 3–3 thriller at Priestfield, while Barry Fry’s Bees won the reverse fixture at Underhill. For the highlights, we go back to the momentous 1995–96 campaign, when a Gills army descended on Underhill to outnumber the home fans two-to-one in a crowd of just 3,077. Goals in each half from Kevin Rattray and a thumping free-kick from Dominic Naylor gave the travelling hordes the growing belief that it was going to be a special season after years in the doldrums, the result leaving Gills top of the pile with four wins from four.

Ainsworth admitted in the press this week that transfer mistakes were made last summer and he probably shouldn't have re-signed all the players he did, apparently lessons have been learned for next season. The judgement on that statement will come swiftly in just over a week when the retained list is announced, with hints already that the number of first-team players departing may not be as significant as many would like. 

​Anyway, that's enough rambling from me, safe travels if you're making the trip, sing loud and proud and hope that there's enough left in the tank to avoid yet another humiliating result come 5pm.

Enjoy the game, and...

COYG!!!