Martin Allen says Barnet are ready for the League Two season to begin and admits the challenge has been keeping the reins on his players with the big kick-off now just seven days away.

The Bees will make their return to the Football League at newly-relegated Leyton Orient in a week’s time. 

But before the real test can begin there was the matter of seeing off National League promotion hopefuls Eastleigh in their penultimate pre-season clash.

Early goals from Andy Yiadom and Mauro Vilhete did just that and Barnet were in cruise control from there on out as Richard Hill’s Spitfires failed to cause the visitors any problems.

And speaking afterwards, Allen confirmed the players were now raring to go ahead of their season-opener at Brisbane Road.

“In my mind they are all ready to go,” he stated. “They have trained very hard for three weeks.

“We had a team bonding day on Tuesday at Hyde Park where we sat next to the café and they expected to go swimming in the lake – they didn’t, they just went for a nice lunch which the chairman organised in central London. So they all got to know each other a bit there.

“All of them can play,” continued Allen. “Some people say we can’t do it without John Akinde, but we can. Some people say we can’t do it without Graham Stack, but we can. They can all play in our team and that is the beauty of these group of players.”

He added: “I was ready to go two weeks ago, I knew the players were ready. It is holding them back and keeping the reins on them.

“They do not know who is going to play, I do. They won so convincingly last week, 3-1 against MK Dons, and it could have been double that. They won 2-0 here against what is a good team, and they (Eastleigh) have strengthened this summer, but I don’t recall one shot on our goal.”

That lack of action will have disappointed trialist Jamie Stephens. The former Liverpool youth team keeper played the full 90 minutes as Graham Stack was again left out as a precautionary measure and the Bees head coach was coy on the youngster's display.

But Allen is confident player-coach Stack will be fit and ready for next Saturday’s curtain raiser in Leytonstone.

He said: “Graham could have played today but I decided a few days ago he was not going to play today.

“I decided he needs more rehab and more strength and conditioning work with our physio and it is important we get this minor strain [right] and take good care of that.

“If push came to shove he could have played today but I think it was better to protect him and hopefully he will be ready to train next Thursday and going forward into next week he will ready.”

The Bees head coach also confirmed striker Kevin Lisbie was withdrawn after less than half an hour with a tight hamstring but would not be drawn on whether the former Orient striker would be available to face his last club.

You can read the match report from today’s win at The Silverlake Stadium by clicking here.