Barnet Football Club

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Martin Allen: “We played some lovely football”

Martin Allen was pleased with his side’s second half performance against Notts County, as the Bees came from a goal down to beat the Magpies.

Discussing the match, Martin said:

“We changed our team around, and most of our subs from the weekend played in the game.

“A couple of the young players went into the team again – two 18 year olds.

“We created a lot of chances in the first half, without really playing that well.

“Then I think you could see the difference when we put Bira Dembele and Michael Gash into the game.

“We were a lot stronger and much more physically prepared to take them on.

“From that point onwards it was a comfortable victory – they had nothing and we totally destroyed them.

“We put Bira in at the back and moved Andy Yiadom up into midfield.

“He played on the right, where he’s been so effective this season.

“He’s been fantastic on that right hand side and I think that’s seven goals for him now.

“Michael Gash playing up front next to John Akinde helped John out too.

“You could probably say that there were six or seven from our strongest team not playing tonight, and we’ve managed to come away with a 3-1 victory.

“It was a very comfortable victory, and in the second half Notts County offered nothing.

“All the players that played this evening have played in a winning team.

“Justin Nwogu and Fumnaya Shomotun played in the 1-1 draw away at Exeter City about a month ago, so those two are good players.

“But they’re really players for the future, they’re not perhaps ready now.

“I’m getting them ready for next season to be honest.

“Half an eye is on next season, and half an eye is on keeping everybody happy at the moment.

“They all work hard, they all train hard, and they’ve all got a great attitude.

“We haven’t got any players at this club that walk about not caring.

“All out players are full on – that’s why we were champions last year, and that’s why we’re getting stronger and stronger with our fitness levels over the course of the season.

“I wanted to put young Tom Day on for the last ten minutes, because the supporters haven’t seen him yet.

“He’s a good player; we’ve got some really good young players here, and Tom’s another one to come into the fold.

“I’m going to try and get him onto the pitch before the end of the season, so the Barnet supporters can see him.

“I’m going to try and get young Nana Kyei in too, so we’ve really got a good little nucleus to push on with through the summer.

“They’ve all got to train through the summer of course – I don’t believe in players having six to eight weeks off messing around!

“They’ve got to graft so they’re ready for Men’s football next season.”

Looking ahead to Saturday’s game against Mansfield Town, Martin said:

“There will be lots of changes again.

“This squad has been put together so that all the players know how to play in any team, in any formation.

“We play different ways on different days; sometimes we want to get it down and play a little bit more.

“Tonight there was no wind, so we tried to pass the ball a little more than at other times during the winter.

“That’s when ‘the missile’ comes into good effect!

“But this evening the grass was nice, the wind was nice, the blue sky was nice, and we played some lovely football.”