Who Will Be The First To Shine In Front Of The Cameras In 2021?

BT Sport’s first live National League offering of 2021 sees two sides with very different goals cross swords.

One side are battling to stay in the division, while the other eyes making it out the other end.

Barnet and Boreham Wood may have separate objectives in the five months ahead but don’t expect either to be satisfied with starting the New Year without passing this screen test.

It is Tim Flowers’ first home game at the helm - and his first Bees game playing for points - three weeks after taking charge.

He already knows the size of the task in front of him with his new club without a win in nine.

In their last league outing, a 6-0 thrashing at Chesterfield saw Peter Beadle leave his post.

Flowers is in no mood to sugar coat anything as the BT Sport cameras roll up at The Hive on Saturday.

“We need points, we really need points on the board,” said the new boss to the club’s media team.

“We have to start winning some football matches and quickly, you can get cut adrift before you know it if you aren’t careful.

“Getting our heads above water as soon as possible is the main thing. You pick the league table up and have a look at it, and it isn’t great reading.

“It’s an unforgiving division. If you aren’t up for the fight or the scrap then you aren’t made for this league.”

He knows what a threat Luke Garrard’s team will pose this weekend.

“Boreham Wood has been as solid a team as any across the division in the past three or four years,” he continued.

“Luke and his staff have done a fantastic job. They’ve been together a long time. They are a good side who are well coached and well organised. They have players who are better than this level.

“You can get badly found out in these sort of matches if you aren’t careful. We need to get out there and give them a game.

“There are a lot of good sides in the National League and Boreham Wood are certainly one of them.”

Wood’s situation couldn’t be much more different - they can’t stop winning at the moment.

They may not have kicked a National League ball since December 12 when they beat Aldershot, but December also brought highly impressive wins at Notts County and Hartlepool United.

They start as favourites to make it four victories on the spin in the meeting of two sides not far away in distance but currently in another postcode in terms of results.

Manager Luke Garrard told the club’s YouTube channel that they can’t wait to make up for lost time and take to the field again on Saturday tea-time.

“You can feel it in the squad, they’re itching for a game of football,” he said over Christmas.

“They have been gutted that we haven’t been out there playing - the boys can’t wait to get back playing.

“We’re on a roll, we’ve won five games out of five and playing games of football aids that.

“But we’ve been able to get people back and we have a squad that is a bit fresher.

“Sometimes you have to look at the positives and fingers crossed we can get back out there and show what we’re all about.

"We just can't wait to get out there again."