Fleetwood Town will be hoping to recreate the away form shown at Gillingham and Port Vale when they travel to Barnet on Saturday.
By David MitchellFleetwood Town will be hoping to recreate the away form shown at Gillingham and Port Vale when they travel to Barnet on Saturday.
After a dismal start to the npower League 2 campaign, when they failed to win their first twelve games, the Bees have hit form and lie second in the league over the last six matches.
Despite the cold weather this week there has been some useful work done at Town, as manager Graham Alexander pointed out:
'It was important that we got out on grass for our Thursday training on the Highbury pitch. Dale looks after it well and had the covers on so we were able to get on for an hour and a half.'
'On Tuesday, we had the game at Blackburn's training ground and it definitely helped quite a few of the lads who haven't had game time. We were up against a strong side and have arranged another game for next week. It's important because it's so frustrating if you are fit and not getting match time. We are slowly welcoming lads back from injury which gives us more options.'
Turning to the match on Saturday, Alexander said:
'Despite the poor weather forecasts we have to prepare as if there is a game on, and a tough one at that. We know that we need to give a better performance than last Saturday and use the likes of the Port Vale game as our benchmark. If the match is called off it would be better done earlier so that players and supporters are saved an unnecessary journey. If it's on we'll give it our best shot. We understand how difficult it can be for clubs to get games on, though.'
There have been four wins out of six for Barnet and, most recently, victories over strong Yorkshire opposition in Bradford City and Rotherham. The Bees achieved back-to-back clean sheets for only the second time this season.
The club now lie 20th and, for the last four games, the head coach has been former Dutch international, Edgar Davids. In an interview with the 'Barnet Times', David's describes every game as a 'final':
'It doesn't matter who we play against we need to get a result. At the end of the day we are still near the bottom of the league. If the teams around us keep winning we need to keep winning.'
Town will be seeking a double after winning 2-1 at Highbury at the end of September, Barnet going down to ten men when goalkeeper Graham Stack was sent off in the first half.
The Town squad set-off for Barnet on Friday morning on schedule with no adverse reports from Underhill.
