Often Partisan

Barnsley Preview

It’s another trip up North for Blues today as they travel to Oakwell. Can Barnsley stop the Birmingham City Promotion Disco Bus?

Barnsley FC

Keith Hill has acknowledged in his press conference prior to this game that it’s a tough fixture for the tykes, who are in a run of indifferent form. They have won three of their last six games, but they have also lost three and whilst they score plenty of goals they are conceding them at a similar rate – 11 in each end. Only three teams have scored more goals than Barnsley at home this year (Blues not being one of them), but only two teams have conceded more goals than Barnsley at home.

With this in mind Keith Hill has to look to his defence to see if he can plug the gaps. Luke Steele is due to make his 150th appearance between the sticks in a Barnsley shirt, and Hill must decide whether to give Scott Golbourne his first start. There are also possible returns for Jay McEveley to shore up the back and hard working winger Jim O’Brien after injury.

Blues

The games are coming thick and fast for Blues now and Chris Hughton has some selection headaches to sort out. With Guirane N’Daw likely to miss out after coming off against Pompey, I’m hoping that he’ll start with either Wade Elliott or Nathan Redmond to give us some natural width on the left. That being said there is a possibility that we’ll only have one fit striker which would mean either both of the above players coming in or maybe a chance for Morgaro Gomis.

Zigic is still definitely out with a knee injury and Marlon King may be rested as he finds his way back to 100 per cent fitness from a groin strain. There may also be a chance on the bench for a youngster like Jake Jervis due to the lack of fully fit bodies in the squad.

I think this is an away fixture we could win, but with the games piling up (Blues play Hull on Tuesday) I hope we can at least come away with a point and no further injuries. The game should be on – Oakwell has undersoil heating but if I hear anything about a possible postponement I’ll post something up on the blog.

Edit: Game called off due to a frozen pitch

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16 Responses to “Barnsley Preview”

  • bluenoseneil says:

    We should win this given our recent run of form and Vaz Te leaving for The Hammers, as the goals will be harder to come by for Hill and hos boys now.

    Just a little thought provoker for all on here:

    Hughton gets bought out of his contract by Spurs when (and not if) Harry takes the England job – and as a successful ex-player and Assistant Manager there he’s gotta be a hot favourite, coupled with the success he has had with us with no resources – and then we continue on with Calderwood and Trollope.

    They cost us no money – cos they’re here already – and they both have Managerial experience and know the squad well.

    That’s my bet if CH does get lured away to White Hart Lane, and to be honest I wouldn’t be either surprised or disappointed with that as an outcome.

    Thoughts?

    • almajir says:

      spurs will want a higher profile manager than Hughton IMO.

    • alexjhurley says:

      You wouldn’t be disappointed to see Hughton go ? What planet you on mate ?!?!?!?! Let me guess, you’d prefer to have the ginger jock back, once the V*^la have dispensed with his his services.

      Plus, as almajir quite rightly points out Spurs won’t be remotely interested in Hughton, ex-player or otherwise. Clubs with aspirations of winning the Prem don’t appointment managers with only 2 years experience in the 2nd tier, no matter how well they’ve done.

      Other than those 2 points, you talk a lot of sense.

      • bluenoseneil says:

        Alex, I simply have plenty of faith in both the squad of players to succeed, and Calderwood and Trollope (as supporting the efforts of CH) to be able to pick up and run with it IF…..IF…. he left.

        Yes it would be UTTER CRUD if he went but I am just anticipating what I saw as relatively inevitable before it happens. Almajir and current odds on him leaving have slightly allayed my fears though.

        As for Mr McLeish; I would rather cut off my necessaries with a rusty breadknife….

  • Bluehobba says:

    Yes a game we should win and with a solid defence Blues have, a game we shouldn’t lose. Lets hope we get at them down both flanks and give Rooney as much ammunition to get us home. A 1-0 victory to Blues I think…..

  • Jaffa says:

    12.30 pitch inspection at Oakwell.Fingers crossed it goes ahead.

  • Blue Steve says:

    Its off according to Barnsley and bbc. I think this is no bad thing considering our injuries and the fact we play Tuesday.

  • P Aranoid says:

    blues barnsley postponed by hull city supporting referee, hull at home, that game goes ahead ok, so ref has time to nip over and see his team who just happen to be blues opponents on tuesday. hull boosted by the fact our game is postponed , could now be above us after tuesday night. frozen pitch…. what a load of………..

  • Danny B says:

    Agree with some of the comments above, the extra few days rest will help us in the short term and although in the long term it means another week of back to back fixtures closer to the seasons end i’m confident hughton will have a few loanees in to help cope in the final few weeks of the season so that combined with cardiff loosing + bpool drawing makes it a good day for us without even played a game!!

    Ps I guess the Barnsley review becomes a discussion into what can be done across the country to stop so many games being called off so close to kick-off, I recall the Reading game at donny was called off only 40mins before kick off the other week and the rugby just 5mins before tonight!!

  • Ali Duncan says:

    Still can’t believe it! A complete farce.

    If they knew their undersoil was poor then why was there not a preliminary inspection on Friday with the status quo announced and also that there would be another inspection at 08.00 or so the following day. This would have averted Blues fans (and players) travelling. I don’t know this but I bet they had the heating on but not the pitch covers. If that was the case then the club need new ground staff and a whole new senior management team. Basic preparation work and communication not carried out as we’d heard NOTHING about this until 12.30 on the day of the game.

    4 hours to get there and the same on the return. I could state that we’d wasted money too but that’s not really that important – it’s my time that I can’t get back!

    In other news we have a decent drink in Sheffield before our train back. To change our tickets would have been £50 each. Crazy.

    Got home at 22.00 a little worse for wear. I won’t be making the replay. That is a dead cert.

    KRO!

    • almajir says:

      It’s not that the undersoil heating was poor – it’s just that it’s not designed to work in the temperatures the country suffered.

      Admittedly, from what I heard Barnsley said that there was no problems until they contacted the ref at 10:45am on the Saturday.

  • […] Barnsley Preview (Take two) Hopefully, today will see Blues take on Barnsley at Oakwell after the original fixture was postponed due to a frozen pitch. The original preview can be seen here. […]


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