Barnet’s Skrill Premier campaign gets underway on Saturday and Graham Stack believes a strong start to the season is vital if the Bees are to mount a promotion bid.
To those outside of the club, Edgar Davids’ side are not fancied to challenge for the title but they are expected to push for a place in the play-offs.
An opening day fixture against Skrill North champions Chester awaits Barnet this weekend. It will be the first competitive game at The Hive and a big crowd is expected.
Pressure will be on Barnet to record victory and Stack admits the Bees must start the season strongly.
He said: “Those first five or six games you want to really hit the ground running and then you can really build on that.
“The key for us will be the start because you only have to look at last season to see what happened when we didn’t start well.”
The first day of a new season is always an unknown and Stack says it is difficult for him to judge how the Bees will shape up in the Skrill Premier as he hasn’t played in the division before.
He added: “I think we do have a strong squad and we have quality in every position. But I haven’t played in the Conference before so I don’t know if we’re fit enough, physical enough or whether we are technically better than the others.
“We are going into the unknown. But whether we are stronger than last season I don’t know.
“We’ve lost the likes of Ricky Holmes, John Oster and Barry Fuller and they are very good players.
“We’ve replaced them with good players but it is still early days.” The Bees have had a mixed pre-season in terms of results but performances have given supporters plenty of reasons to be optimistic.
Barnet were beaten 2-1 on Saturday against Cypriot side AEL Limassol but they matched the visitors, who were in last season’s Champions League qualifiers, throughout the game.
Stack was absent due to injury but watched from the sidelines and felt the Bees offered more of an attacking threat when they switched formations.
He said: “When we did go with two strikers we then gave them more of a problem and the centre forwards found more space. So playing 4-4-2 is something that we may need to consider.
“We’re very comfortable playing with five men in midfield and everyone knows their jobs. But certainly at home the onus will be on us to go and win games."
Barnet will go into the contest with an almost fully fit squad. The only injury concern is to centre-back Anthony Acheampong.
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