We played Barnet last weekend, but it might be interesting to see how we've fared against the league's newcomers since automatic promotion was brought in in 1987. Barnet, of course, qualify as they've twice been promoted to the league in 1991 and 2005. Our first encounter with the Bees was in October 91 at Underhill when our opponents were going great guns in their first season whilst we were struggling. We came away with a superb 2-1 win courtesy of a late header by Dave Lancaster, so earning the club the league "performance of the week" award. We completed the double that season, much to the ire of their manager of the time, a certain Barry Fry, in an entertaining 3-2 victory with goals from Jack Lemon and a Steve Norris double.

Our subsequent performances against Barnet have been less impressive (1 win in 7 games) including a dismal 4-1 defeat at their place in October 94 with one of their goals coming from a stupid Sean Dyche backpass that keeper Marples tried to chest away on the dive, but failed with the ball comically (for Barnet) ending in the net.

Of the remaining 8 new teams, we've a better than 50% record against 4, an equal record against 1 and a sub-50% record against 3. Our best record with 2 wins from 2 is against Kidderminster, now no longer in the league, which is a shame because their famous Aggborough soup is by far the best half-time nourishment ever experienced on a football league ground. Macclesfield come next with 3 wins from 4 and interestingly, our one league defeat came from 2 Steve Payne goals; the only goals he ever scored for the Silkmen. He subsequently joined us and had a rather better scoring record. Also of note is the fact that we've drawn the Cheshire outfit more times in cups and had a less-than-impressive haul from those encounters. Given our lack of cup pedigree, that is perhaps not surprising.

Cheltenham Town and the sadly defunct Maidstone United come next in the success ratings with the Robins having failed to beat us in any of the 6 encounters and even failing to score against us at their place. They even squandered a 2-0 lead against us in December 02 with late goals from Stuart Howson and Shane Bradley salvaging us a point much against the odds. Trips to Maidstone's ground in Dartford were always a friendly affair, though 1 goal per game didn't exactly make for great entertainment. We won 2 of the 3 in Kent and did the same here in rather more entertaining games. We even had some strange scorers with Tony Brien getting 2 in the February 1990 game and Jamie Hewitt similarly netting a brace on the opening day of the 91/92 season in a 3-0 win.

Our 1 season against Rushden is not likely to be repeated, given their rapid fall down the tables, so our 50-50 record is virtually certain to remain whilst another club we won't see in league action against us is Scarborough who went out of business in the summer. We had some good games against them, especially at their place, but 3 home defeats in 6 games is a bit grim. The last of those, on the opening day of 94-95, came from a penalty (for handball by Nicky Law who was dismissed) that the referee later admitted should not have been given and probably cost us automatic promotion. Never mind, though, we did go up by winning in the play-off at Wembley, which was an even better way of getting promoted.

The newcomers that we've played most are the Chairboys of Wycombe with 12 league games before this season. Our single success at Adams Park came in our first visit in 1994 when a Steve Norris penalty gave us victory. This avenged a home defeat earlier in the season when we lost 3-2 with our second goal coming right at the death from a Lee Turnbull penalty. This turned out to be a significant oddity in that it was his last kick for the club as we sold him to Doncaster before the week was out. Another oddity, especially for anoraks, was the game in September 95 when we wore the unusual kit of green and white striped shirts, white shorts and royal blue socks and had a certain David Pierce in goal for his only ever game for us. We lost 1-0 in an uneventful affair. The best game of a generally dull crop on their patch was undoubtedly the match in August 2003 when we went behind early on but swiftly equalised only to go behind again and to equalise on the stroke of half time with a goal by Hudson. The second half saw Wycombe once more take the lead on 61 minutes and just when it looked like we'd lost, Andy Rushbury knocked in an equaliser in front of the travelling supporters to send us home with daft grins on our faces. We've had some entertaining games at Saltergate in contrast, twice beating the Buckinghamshire outfit 4-2 and once 4-0.

That only leaves Yeovil to mention when, 2 years ago, we got off to a good start winning 3-1 in our first game at a blazingly hot Huish Park with Barry Roche saving a penalty and Adam Smith scoring 2 beauties in the second half. We've since mustered just 1 point from 3 miserable games following that to leave us with a poor record against the Glovers.

All in all, though, a 75% record against the new boys is pretty good, but you would expect that the additional experience would mean that we should have the edge on these upstart johhny-come-latelys. It's only right after all that a club with our ancient traditions should prevail.

All teams previously played have been ignored.

By John Taylor