Barnes look to maintain their unbeaten this week as they were play for the first time this season in the league, a team that were in the SSFL last season South West Athletic.
Manager Tom Jackson looks ahead to Barnes first away game of the season. “This week we're on the road as we make the journey to Barn Elms Sports Centre to face the familiar foe of South West Athletic.”
Last seasons very entertaining encounters against South West where Barnes managers to pick up 4 points from 6 scoring 11 goals in doing so. Jacko looks forward to the test “Previous encounters against this opposition have truly been memorable, with a thrilling 5-1 away win for us the last time we played them at this ground and a nail biting 6-6 draw in the return the leg, it's 1 win and 1 draw from last season. And indeed we hope to replicate last season's success whilst continuing our strong start to this season.”
Despite last weeks defeat in the cup the gaffer was impressed and wants to take the positives into this Sunday “With last week's 3-2 loss and potential giant killing against championship side Battersea Dogs FC in the cup behind us, we go into Sunday's game with renewed determination and confidence having gone 2-0 up against a very strong side who were 8 divisions above us.”
Players will return this week for Barnes and Jacko hopes that the number of players coming back can help get the win. “As the manager, I'm in a fortunate position this week with not 1 but 5 players returning from injury as James, Rhys, Mo, Ena and myself all recover from knee, ankle, rib, hamstring and muscle injuries respectively. It leaves myself and assistant manager Ash with a few selection head aches but we'd much rather be in this position than the 5 players all be out injured.”
Two players will remain out for the game and will be out for an extended period. “Long term injured players Harry and Billy continue to progress well in their own injury rehabilitation.”
Tom wants to keep the squad as similar as a possible to last week and unless forced upon will try to build some chemistry between some of the players. “On Sunday we will be handing a debut to new goalkeeper Bill and we are all confident that he will be a strong addition for the season. After last week's promising display, we are unlikely to make many changes to the starting line up, only those forced upon us due to players being unavailable (no one likes working on a Sunday!!).”
It’s an important game as is every game and the manager don’t want his side to rest up now. “As much as we are all looking forward to the next game, we must not become complacent, knowing that the opposition are more than capable of scoring goals. However we will play with pride, grit and determination to strive for the next win of the campaign. I have belief in whatever 11 players we start with, that they will give it their all and make us proud.”