Barnet boss praises Newport County for 'hanging on' in League Two

Allen, who brings his side to Rodney Parade tomorrow, believes the two teams have a lot in common as they battle against bigger clubs like Luton Town and Portsmouth in the basement division.

The Bees are currently 13th in the table on six points with one win, one defeat and three draws from their first five games.

County are a point behind in 18th with one win, two draws and two defeats to their name so far.

Both sides have also gone out of the EFL Cup and both lost their opening Checkatrade Trophy matches in midweek.

Discussing the trip to Newport, Allen told the Barnet club website: “They were in the Conference themselves a few years ago and they’ve now established themselves in League Two.

“So the whole club has done really well to hang on, keep going and build for the long term.

“You can just go up then go straight back down and not handle it, but they’ve done really well.

“It’s not easy to go straight from the Conference into the League Two play-offs or promotion places, like Bristol Rovers have done.

“They spent bundles and bundles of money, which us and Newport County haven’t got.”

He added: “Newport are a good club and I enjoy going down to Rodney Parade.

“I always get well looked after by the people behind the scenes – the crowd is full of passion and you always know that it’s going to be a hard game down there.”

Barnet’s previous visit to Rodney Parade turned out to be anything but a hard game for the visitors who ran out 3-0 winners on March 8.

Goals from Andy Yiadom, John Akinde and Mark Randall, who should line up for the Exiles tomorrow, made it a miserable evening for Warren Feeney’s men.

Martin revealed that Bira Dembele and Justin Amaluzor will be missing this weekend through injury, saying: “Bira has got sore ribs so he’s not involved at the moment.

“Justin is out with a hip flexor injury at the moment – that’s going to be two or three weeks.”