Gateshead will arrive at The Hive on Saturday in a state of limbo.

Boss Gary Mills has held discussions with managerless Wrexham this week after being given permission by the Heed and it is unclear who will be in the dugout when they arrive in Edgware at Saturday tea-time.

He has since been allowed to discuss the vacancy at League Two strugglers Tranmere Rovers but attended his Friday press conference as scheduled.

The former York City chief has been in charge at the Gateshead International Stadium since succeeding Anth Smith in September 2013 and last season guided the Tyneside outfit the Conference play-off final, where they were beaten by Cambridge United.

And the former Nottingham Forest and Leicester City boss’ achievement was recognised at the end-of-season National Game Awards, where he beat Luton Town’s title-winning boss John Still to the Non-League Manager of the Year gong.

Mills was unable to repeat that success this time around with the Heed tenth ahead of Saturday’s season finale in Edgware.

They had at one stage looked an outside shot for a second successive play-off appearance, reaching seventh position, but are now simply looking to end a season which has fizzled out on a high note.

Injuries have hardly helped Mills and speaking after last Saturday’s 4-2 home defeat by Forest Green Rovers, he told the club website he would not blame injuries for their struggles.

“We’re a team on our knees,” stated Mills. “It’s been the same eleven every week for the past few weeks, and we’ve picked up another injury today (Valentin Gjokaj).

“You will never, ever hear excuses from me, but when you’re picking up 10-12 injuries to major players and having to make changes to the way that we play, it doesn’t bode well to go and pick up the results that we want.

“It’s disappointing for us, but hopefully everybody understands the reasons why we haven’t been picking up points of late.

“We have to be realistic, and the players have been giving me everything they’ve got.

“So, I want to thank them for that, and I want to thank the fans for all of their efforts this season.”

The Heed have won just one of their last eight as their season draws to a disappointing end. Their record against top-five sides is also underwhelming having failed to beat any of the current top five and garnered just three points from draws.

There are two former Bees in the Gateshead squad - midfielder John Oster and defender Valentin Gjokaj, who spent time on loan at The Hive last season and scored in memorable fashion against Nuneaton Town.

Former Sunderland and Everton winger Oster will miss the game through injury and spent the 2012/13 season at Underhill, making 28 appearances and scoring twice from the middle of the park.

Gateshead have only beaten Barnet twice in league meetings, winning 1-0 at The Hive last term and by the same scoreline at Underhill in 1984. The Bees have won seven of the 11 league meetings between the two clubs.

Gateshead starting XI v Forest Green Rovers (18.04.15): Bartlett; Baxter, Curtis, Shaw, Pattison; Gjokaj, Chandler; Ramshaw, Rodman, Sainte-Luce; Rankine