After Bassey and his battling band of Bees gave Sutton a run for their money, we return to Hive comforts against the diamond geezers from Dagenham. One of my favourite lines from Pride and Prejudice sums up pretty much how our NL relationship with Dagenham has been "For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn". After signing Tyrannous Still and half the Dagenham team (sadly not the good half) we have faced them picking at the bones of our playoff team this season as Johnson, Reynolds, Adams, McCallum and Vilhete moved to the arse end of the district line to ply their trade.
The win at Dagenham seemed like the dawn of a new era for Beadle and his boys but little were we to know what was to come as 2 managers and one club legend tried to find some semblance of a squad among the ruins of our summer recruitment. For Dagenham they have overcome a disasterous start to the season as they failed to integrate their new signings to sit comfortably in mid-table.
While it is fair to say that Reynolds cared more about his barnet than Barnet FC during his time at the club, he stands Head and Shoulders above Mohsni and Nugent as the centre backs brought in to replace him and while we could never match the silly money Dagenham are paying McCallum it has been easy to Pantenne of his replacements up front. At least now we don't have to trudge home from the Hive if the worst happens, we can just Watch and Go.
In terms of team lineup it was gutting to see Aymen Azaze pick up a nasty head injury at Sutton. He has been a little erratic at times but showing real signs of ability as you would expect in a young keeper partnered with a confidence which belies his years. While we can Callan a replacement fairly easily I think it is time that the club brought back Loach to provide quality cover for him or got an experienced jobber to sit on the bench. If Jamie Stephens is fit this would be a good opportunity for him to get some experience under his belt.
Other than that I remain of the view that the McQueen experiment is not really working and with Mike Petrasso now fully fit it is time to go for a more attacking option on the wing. I am also not convinced that Harry Taylor in the advanced press/attacking midfielder role is the way to go at the Hive when we are struggling to create chances.
I would go:-
------------------------------Loach-----------------------------
--Vaughan--------Daly-------Preston--------Beard-----
--------Kefalas-------McQueen-----Taylor--------------
--Petrasso--------------------------------Mason-Clarke--
------------------Baker-Richardson------------------------
Subs: Callan , Richards-Everton, Adeloye, Skeffington, Vasilou
Looking forward to this one and I hope we will complete the double over the daggers. COYB's
