Help is needed before it becomes too late
The window for reinforcements gets smaller by the day
The first Bees blog of a new year and one that again holds a lot of promises for the next 12 months ahead. Nothing stands still in football, very little remains the same.
Five wins from the last six games sees Barnet still well primed for a finish inside the top three and the all important bye in the first play-off round. A place in the FA Trophy 5th Round within those wins saw the Bees drawn away to lowly Welling Utd to take place in early February.
Of course it’s never plain sailing, as Dean Brennan has reiterated often it’s a relentless division that you need to be on your game every 90 minutes or you get punished for it, ever more so evident away at Altrincham.
We don’t have a right to win every game we play, none of us do. Blips and bumps will happen along the course of this season but on the whole I think everything we’ve seen so far we’d have taken if offered to us at the start of the season.
The only thing I can see derailing our season is the amount of injuries beginning to mount up to key players as the season enters its most crucial stage.
Is it down to a lack of recovery process? Is it down to the extra time that’s been added now onto games that mean it can be a full 15 minutes or more extra to play, instead of the odd two or three added to the end of each half?
Is it general wear and tear or is it something completely different? I think it’s something that only Jade can answer or the management team? We haven’t see much change in the amount of added minutes reducing and it surely can’t be helping.
It’s not even occurring to those who have a history of injury problems which must be of a concern and they’re not small one or two week problems either.
We saw last season that fatigue got the better of the squad as we limped into the play-off’s pretty patched up in the end with players who came in but didn’t improve on those who we missed lining up.
There has been a few departures over the last six weeks or so both permanently and on loan freeing up some space. If we aren’t going to end up in the same situation then this is the month when EFL players are available to make a move or two and reinforce what we already have.
The quality of Jordan Maguire-Drew has been evident in his short time already, a player known to me since he was an 18 year old on loan at Worthing from Brighton, there are many more out there and one or two likely to be released from their contracts early ahead of the summer or with the chance to impress on loan.
Of course they have to be the right fit, the right character to come into this group, it’s not a situation for just anyone and they have to be better than what we already have.
It would be a shame to let things fall and put more pressure on those still fit to carry the rest of the season on their shoulders, one or two more additions might just about be enough to help us through as the injured return hopefully before the end of the season.
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Think we need some joined up thinking from the authorities. We have a 46 game league season and with the extra time added I worked out at the start of the season could add the as much as 10 extra games over the course of the campaign plus two cup competitions. In addition we are only allowed 3 from 5 subs rather than 5 from 7 and yes I know we have well we do not have a big enough squad argument from some clubs, but that should not then become a problem for the rest. I think the present situation borders on crazy and is unfair on both the clubs, the players and also the supporters.
Look forward to perhaps catching up with you on Saturday as I mentioned before. David.
Spot on Trev as always! See you on Saturday I hope.I'm presenting the December POTM Award!