After a battling win in Chelmsford where the segregation was abandoned at the last minute in a mostly friendly but chaotic atmosphere, we will be facing a team which offers the worst of both worlds, a small stadium with limited support but a League 1 Team. On the positive side Dean Brennan has got us playing well and with most of the team rested on Tuesday we can hope we can put in a good performance up there with our paper thin squad.
The last time we went up to Accrington Stanley it was the death knell of the Rossi Eames regime as he called up the three exiled players only to see us get tonked 4-1. I missed the game as I will be doing this weekend but I do feel we can give a better account of ourselves than we did that day despite being two leagues adrift. It's amazing what a competent manager and a motivated team can achieve.
Accrington despite my sniffy review of their poky ground remains one of my favoured away trips mostly for the Crown Pub which is one of the great away boozers on the road. Being offered different flavours of pork scratchings at a football pub was deeply impressive. as was the care they took of us when the Accy game was called off at the last minute a few years ago. Westy's song to the Grimsby fans in the Hendo season also sticks in the memory.
Accrington are famous for the milk advert and they have skimmed along cheerfully in League 1 on a well organised budget while being able to get the cream of the crop of local talent from blackburn and the like. I just hope that Barnet have not missed the oat in terms of establishing themselves as a league side in the same way Accy have otherwise TK might through his soys out of the pram. It does seem that with DB we have the winning formula and that his bristly interviews are getting on people's goat less often, although being on a winning run has certainly cowed a few of our more critical supporters.
I am pleased that it looks like there will be a Supporters Coach for this one. I think that for a cup competition having a surge support to compliment the Percy bus is ideal and credit to the SA and the club for organising this. I am glad to see that those supporters who value a reliable service with a pub stop which goes every game will get themselves the Percy Bus while the club supported transport will also provide a well timed and convenient option for supporters given the train strikes and this being a big game for the club. This feels like the best of both worlds for this fixture.
In terms of team lineup the only question for me will be whether Annesley gets a start. I would go:-
------------------------------------------Walker--------------------------------------
------Wynter----------Collinge------Annesley------Okimo-------------Beard----
-------------------------Gorman-----De Havilland---Pritchard---------------------
-----------------------------Kanu-------------Kabamba-------------------------------
Subs: Callan, Diarra, Armstrong, Shields, Flanagan, Smith, Thomas
I am missing this one but hope that we can pull off a surprise and get through to the next round.
COYBs
