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.
