The Saddlers will take part in their third game of the 2025/26 League Two season as they make their way to the Hive Stadium in Edgware, London.MATCH INFORMATION
WHERE: The Hive Stadium
WHEN: 3.00pm, Saturday, 16th August 2025
COMPETITION: Sky Bet League Two [GW 3]
NEWS & VIEWS
After opening their league campaign with a win over Swindon Town, the Saddlers' momentum was immediately halted when they were narrowly defeated by Gillingham in their second outing of the campaign last weekend.
Despite their strong opening day performance, the team struggled to create enough in the final third, and, when any fleeting chances came along, were simply unable to capitalise, unlike their opponents who scored via Bradley Dack in the second half.
The defeat to the Gills was followed up by a visit to the bet365 Stadium and a penalty shoot-out defeat to Stoke City in the Carabao Cup.
Although the result represents a second defeat in three all-competition games, the performance was arguably better than the one that secured the win over Swindon. Several players, including the starting Ronan Maher, gave Mat Sadler plenty to think about heading to London.
Making a hatful of changes, Sadler opted to shuffle the pack and was rewarded with plenty of strong showings, with a welcome selection headache just one of the positives coming from their trip to Staffordshire.
Whilst this weekend's opponents Barnet have struggled to get their season underway, the Saddlers will have to build upon their defeat in Stoke if they are to avoid a third defeat in a little over a week as the campaign continues.
TEAM NEWS
Aside from long-term absentees Harry Williams and Elicha Ahui, Walsall have a clean bill of health heading into their trip south.
THE OPPOSITION
Barnet are winless and goalless in the league so far this season. Losing to Fleetwood Town and Bromley respectively, last season's National League champions are yet to find their feet, with many pundits' prediction of a second promotion on the bounce currently wide of the mark
FACTFILE: BARNET
Nickname: The Bees
Founded: 1888
Ground: The Hive Stadium
Head Coach: Dean Brennan
HEAD-TO-HEAD
There have been just ten competitive meetings between the Saddlers and Bees, and it's Walsall that hold a commanding head-to-head advantage.
The first meeting took place in front of 4,981 fans at the Bescot Stadium on Saturday, 5th October 1991, and saw the Saddlers win by two-goals-to-nil.
Winning eight and losing just once, the Saddlers will be hoping to extend a seven-game unbeaten run against their opponents when they visit WS1 this weekend.
THE LAST TIME WE MET
The most recent meeting between the Saddlers and Bees took place at the Bescot on Saturday, 24th February 2007, and saw the Saddlers win by four-goals-to-one.
The visitors took the lead via Ollie Allen midway through the first half, but were pegged back just eleven minutes later as - scored an own goal.
Michael Dobson put the Saddlers into the lead nine minutes into the second-half before Kevin Harper bagged a brace to give the result a good level of comfort.
MATCH OFFICIALS
The EFL has confirmed that Abigail Byrne who is based in Suffolk will take charge of the match with Paul Kelly and Rob Smith being named as assistant referees, whilst Adrian Tranter has been selected as Fourth Official.
This will be Byrne's first game of the season. She took charge of eighteen games across various competitions last season, issuing 82 cautions and three red cards.
CATCH THE MATCH
Unable to make it to the Hive? You can catch the match via the club's in-house service, Saddlers+, with audio match passes and annual subscriptions available. Click here for further information.