OPPOSITION Q&A
Carla discusses the Bees
ABOUT ME
My name’s Carla and I’m currently studying a masters degree in football communications and digital marketing. I’m originally from Leeds but moved down to London for my studies and I’m very much enjoying home games not being a 400 mile round trip! I’m 22 years old and have followed Barnet pretty much all of my life after my parents took me to my first game at 16 months old!
RECENT FORM
Our recent form has been really positive. We’ve only lost one of our last six league games and won our last two games. At the start of the week we also beat Chelmsford which means we’re into the second round of the FA Cup too.
HIGHLIGHTS
For me, I’m going to say last week. We had Altrincham away on the Tuesday and then our first ever game at Oldham away on the Saturday. It was a lot of miles but they were two brilliant days out and we won both games comfortably. Definitely a very positive week.
KEY PLAYERS
Idris Kanu came to us from Peterborough at the start of September and has been brilliant since he arrived. He has so much pace and has already contributed with five goals. Harry Pritchard was another new arrival, signing for us in the summer and he has been really consistent this season. He’s solid in the midfield but has goals in him too having contributed with seven so far this season. I’d also say our goalkeeper Laurie Walker who we signed in summer. He has been really solid and made some impressive saves throughout the season so far. He’s now got three clean sheets in a row in all competitions and will no doubt be keen to build on that.
THE MANAGER
Dean Brennan is our manager. He initially joined us as director of football at the start of last season but following Harry Kewell’s sacking, he took over as manager and it has worked well. In recent weeks, he seems to have found a formation that works for us. We’ve dropped two wingers and we now play quite a narrow and tighter game.
THE LINE-UP
Laurie Walker, Ben Wynter, Danny Collinge, Jerome Okimo, Sam Beard, Harry Pritchard, Dale Gorman, Ryan De Havilland, Marvin Armstrong, Idris Kanu, Nicke Kabamba
STRENGTHS & WEAKNESSES
Our strengths would definitely be going forward. We have shown an ability to score goals throughout the season even in games we lost like our 7-5 defeat against Wrexham. We have some players that are really good on the ball and there is also some pace in our side going forward. Although we have been good of late, I would say our weaknesses lie defensively. We have shipped a fair number of goals this season and we are prone to lapses defensively.
PRE-MATCH REFRESHMENTS
I would usually recommend the bar Moranos & a Turkish restaurant called Melissa’s which are by Cannons Park tube station. However, the Cannons Park entrance to The Hive is temporarily closed so it’s not as convenient. The closest Wetherspoons is in Kingsbury which is two stops on the tube from Cannons Park and one stop from Queensbury which is about a 15 minute walk from the Hive on the side of the open entrance. Our away bar isn’t bad either.
WYNTS
I had really high expectations for Wynter since we signed him as I heard a lot of talk of him being the best right back in the league and in honesty, he hasn’t lived up to those expectations yet for me. However, in recent weeks we’ve been seeing him push further up the pitch and add a lot in an attacking sense having scored three goals now. So I have been impressed with that but now it’s about finding the consistency in his defending.
PREDICTION
I’m going to have to go confident here given the fact we are in good form and you are struggling this season. Therefore, I’ll go for a 3-0 win for us.
OTHER ARTICLES
TT PARTNERS
TORQUAYTALK 