Paul Fairclough in as Barnet sack Ian Hendon

Nick Callow11 April 2012

Paul Fairclough today made a dramatic return as manager of Barnet and has just two games to keep them in the Football League after the club sacked Ian Hendon.

Fairclough goes straight into the hotseat for Saturday's trip to second-from-bottom Grimsby needing to avoid defeat to guarantee their League Two safety.

The final straw for former Tottenham defender Hendon was last night's 1-0 defeat at Accrington Stanley, which was a fifth defeat in a row for the club.

Barnet are in a perilous position after just two wins in 14 games and are now sit only four points above fellow strugglers Grimsby.

Fairclough, 60, left the Bees after four years in charge when he lost 3-0 at home to Aldershot on Boxing Day in 2008.

Hendon, who had been at the club as a player and was then assistant to Fairclough, took over that Christmas and masterminded the club's survival last season.

Fairclough - the ninth longest- serving manager in the Football League before he stood down last time - is seen as having the necessary experience to lead Barnet to safety.

But a Grimsby victory would take them to within one point of Barnet going into the final day of the season when Fairclough's men will be at home to already-promoted Rochdale.

Last night's defeat - which was settled by substitute Billy Kee's 70th-minute goal - came after Barnet's sixth trip to Accrington this season.

The game had been postponed four times, while they also lost at Stanley in the FA Cup, going down 1-0 after a Robert Grant goal.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in