FA Cup 4th Round Preview – Barnet vs Brentford, Monday 28th January 2019

In hardly the most thrilling end – well replays aside – to the FA Cup 4th round, Barnet host Brentford at 7.45pm on BT Sport 2.

It’s sort of this or nothing for the Bees. Having spent the first few months of the season flirting with the play-off zone, an improvement on 2017/18’s 9th place finish, things went drastically downhill for the London club.

The choice to give Dean Smith the boot on October 10th proved to be a poor one. His successor, Thomas Frank, went on a truly awful run after taking the reins, winning just one of his first 10 games, with one draw and 8 losses.

And though things have undoubtedly improved since mid-December, with Brentford racking up 4 wins – including a late FA Cup victory against Oxford United – and 3 draws, it appears to be too little too late. They’re now stuck in 18th place in the Championship, a fairly comfortable 11 points above the relegation zone, but 12th adrift of Derby in 6th.

While their league form has been all over the place, one consistent has been Neal Maupay. He has 16 goals in the Championship, and 1 in the FA Cup, and heads into the 4th round with a promising Super Mega PGM of 59-69, well ahead of teammate Ollie Watkins at 30-36.

It would appear Barnet are set for another season in the National League, 14 points off the bottom threshold of promotion-potential. They do, however, have 3 games in hand over 7th place Sutton, meaning with a bit – well, a lot – of luck they could be in with a longshot chance at the play-offs.

Barnet are already old hands in this season’s FA Cup. Starting in the 4th round of qualifying, beating Braintree Town 4-2, they went on to force a replay against Bristol Rovers in the 1st round proper, winning the away fixture 2-1. In the 2nd round they then edged it over Stockport County, before stealing a 1-0 win over Sheffield United in the 3rd.

That final win will give the hosts hope of claiming another Championship scalp on Monday, even if the odds are stacked against them. Spreadex are offering a Brentford/Barnet (h) Goal Supremacy spread of 1.35-1.55, alongside a Total Goals spread of 2.65-2.85.