Another War of the Roses to confuse the media

Last updated : 08 April 2014 By Tony Scholes

They've had us signing each other's players and just a couple of years ago Sky were advertising the live coverage of Portsmouth v Burnley when it was actually Portsmouth v Barnsley.

I'm not confused and tonight we are visiting a traditional old Yorkshire club. We've just had the Belgians and the diving Italians, and Watford were at it again on Saturday, but this place is as traditional Yorkshire as it comes.

It's not been a ground that's been kind to us over the years and I've witnessed some bad times there. Refereeing decisions from Kevin Lynch, Iain Williamson, Nigel Miller and Paul Tierney have turned things against us at Oakwell, and I've certainly not forgotten Stan Ternent's rantings on Boxing Day 2000 when he revealed that the players had had too much plum duff and that Christmas was cancelled.

Michael Duff: Mentality of group comes from the manager

Even when we did win there it was under the cloud of abuse hurled at manager Brian Laws who, just a few days later, was on his way out of Turf Moor after just under a year as manager.

But this is a different Burnley. This is a Burnley that not only won at Leeds but even won at Ipswich and then went and ended that 35 year wait for a win against some other team.

This is a resilient Burnley; this is a relentless Burnley and there is no reason to go there tonight without confidence. We should not, under any circumstances, be over confident but if we play anything close to our best then we'll be edging ourselves ever closer to where we want to be, and that's a guaranteed top two finish.

Some supporters will be over confident tonight, that's how it is, but I don't expect the players to be and Michael Duff has spoken about how difficult the game could be.

Burnley's longest serving player, and now by some distance, said: "Any result away from home in this league is hard to get and I think the stats go to prove that if you score the first goal in any game, you go on to win more often than not.

"We've come back from 1-0 down a few times this year. We just keep going which shows the mentality and character in the team. We work hard all week and we did the same for 86 minutes on Saturday to get ourselves back in the game.

"That's the mentality of the group which comes from the manager. It's something he's put into us and he expects nothing else."

Duff added: "Given where Barnsley are in the league, it's going to be extra tough. With six games to go they will realise where they re and that they've got to start winning games. They've already got a few good results recently, so we know we're in for a difficult game."

I don't think there is any doubt that Duff will be in the centre of our defence tonight. He's played in 35 of our 40 league games, missing the first four through injury and the Watford home game because of a suspension.

It is his fourth best season in terms of appearances and the other three were his first three seasons under the management of Steve Cotterill. Injury kept him out during one season but he wasn't often first choice in the Owen Coyle and Eddie Howe eras.

What will the team be? It's been strange recently keying in the team without the words Ings, then Trippier and more recently Marney and Vokes.

We know that Sam Vokes won't be back for some considerable time but the good news is that Dean Marney's suspension has been served, both Kieran Trippier and Danny Ings have been passed fit, and David Jones, who went off at Watford is fit and well.

Sean Dyche wouldn't quite go as far as to say they would play. I think they all win with Trippier lining up in a back four alongside Jason Shackell, the two of them former Barnsley players from the 2010/11 season.

I think tonight's team will be: Tom Heaton, Kieran Trippier, Michael Duff, Jason Shackell, Ben Mee, Scott Arfield, Dean Marney, David Jones, Michael Kightly, Danny Ings, Ashley Barnes. Subs from: Alex Cisak, Chris Baird, Kevin Long, Danny Lafferty, David Edgar, Brian Stock, Ross Wallace, Junior Stanislas, Keith Treacy.

It's been a difficult season for Barnsley, and another season that has seen them change manager. It started with David Flitcroft in charge, and he'd taken over from Keith Hill midway through the 2012/13 season, but he gave way to Danny Wilson in December just under a year into the job.

After their first win of the season, at home to Huddersfield, on 31st August they were fourth from bottom with four points from five games. That left them outside of the bottom three for two weeks during an international break, but a defeat at Forest saw them back in immediately afterwards and those two weeks remain the only period in the entire season when they've been outside of the relegation places.

It's tight at the bottom but should they beat us tonight and should Charlton lose to Yeovil at The Valley then they would be fourth from bottom again.

Just three points separate the bottom three, then it's Blackpool who are four points away from that group. Any of them could go down and right now it looks to be three from four with all four of them having picked up surprise points in recent weeks.

Barnsley's surprise came at Reading two weeks ago tonight when they won 3-1. They've since followed that up with a crucial win at Yeovil, by four goals to one, and a home 0-0 draw against Brighton.

Chris O'Grady got a couple of goals in the Yeovil win while Dale Jennings scored in each of the victories. Former Bayern Munich player Jennings has just one more goal all season but O'Grady is leading goalscorer with 13 league goals with Tomasz Cywka on four the closest to him.

Tonight they will be without Kelvin Etuhu. He'll have to sit out this game after receiving two yellow cards on Saturday in the Brighton game. Jack Hunt, who has been out with an ankle injury, and Bobby Hassell are in contention to replace him.

Barnsley are expected to name a similar team to that which played against Brighton, with Hunt the likely replacement for Etuhu.

That team was: Luke Steele, Tom Kennedy, Lewin Nyatanga, Kelvin Etuhu, Jean Yves M'voto, Liam Lawrence, Tomasz Cywka (Jack Hunt), Stephen Dawson, Dale Jennings, Chris O'Grady, Ryan McLaughlin (Nick Proschwitz). Subs not used: Iain Turner, Paddy McCourt, Bobby Hassell, Martin Woods, Emmanuel Frimpong.

 

Last Time We Were There

Our league visit to Oakwell last season was Sean Dyche's sixth game in charge of the Clarets. We'd previously won three and lost two but the performances in all five had been better than they were in this 1-1 draw.

Dyche made two changes to the team that had started in the 1-0 win at Hull three days earlier. Kieran Trippier returned having served a one match suspension, with David Edgar returning to the bench, and Marvin Bartley replaced the suspended Dean Marney.

Charlie Austin gave us an early lead

We almost scored from our first serious attack. Trippier and Ross Wallace worked the ball down the right, Trippier's cross was dummied by Bartley only for a defender to come close to turning the ball into his own net.

The resulting corner did, though, provide the first goal. Wallace took the flag kick for Charlie Austin, in the fifth minute, to head us into a fifth minute lead. It was typical Austin as his movement in the box saw him get away from his marker.

We thought it was a good start, it was, but there was little else to come from us on a disappointing night. Our passing was poor and we gave the ball away far too often. The only consolation was that Barnsley didn't capitalise.

Then they equalised with a really soft goal. It was no more than a long cross from Scott Golbourne into the box where Marcus Tudgay too easily got the better of Jason Shackell to head home.

Barnsley were the better side then for the remainder of the first half and we were somewhat fortunate not to concede again with the ball constantly flying across our box.

It was all square at half time and Dyche marched down the touchline to get into the dressing rooms before the players.

His change was to introduce Danny Ings for the woeful Bartley but after a bright opening to the half we deteriorated and Barnsley, again, got the better of things. Thankfully, again, they couldn't make the most of it and they never really threatened to win it until a free kick in stoppage time.

We feared the worst but the kick, taken by Akos Buzsaky, put a weak effort straight into Lee Grant's hands and a draw it was.

There were 1,047 Burnley fans there to witness it. I think there may be more tonight.

The teams were;

Barnsley: Luke Steele, Martin Cranie, Stephen Foster, Jimmy McNulty, Scott Golbourne, Jacob Mellis (Jim O'Brien 81), Jonathan Greening, Akos Buzsaky, Reuben Noble-Lazarus, Marcus Tudgay, Craig Davies (Emile Sinclair 79). Subs not used: Ben Alnwick, John Stones, Scott Wiseman, Tomasz Cywka, Stephen Dawson.

Burnley: Lee Grant, Kieran Trippier, Michael Duff, Jason Shackell, Ben Mee, Brian Stock (David Edgar 81), Marvin Bartley (Danny Ings 45), Chris McCann, Ross Wallace (Sam Vokes 83), Charlie Austin, Martin Paterson. Subs not used: Brian Jensen, Danny Lafferty, Junior Stanislas, Cameron Stewart.

 

Previous Games against Barnsley

 

Last 20 Years
Season Comp Ven Res Att  Scorers
1994/95 Division 1 h 0-1 11,968  
    a 0-2 5,537  
2000/01 Division 1 a 0-1 18,725  
    h 2-1 15,380 Johnrose, Payton
2001/02 Division 1 h 3-3 14,690 Morgan(og), Briscoe, Payton(pen)
    a 1-1 14,411 Taylor
2005/06 Carling Cup h 3-1 4,501 Lowe, Akinbiy, Spicer
2006/07 Championship h 4-2 10,304 Harley, Noel-Williams(3)
    a 0-1 12,842  
2007/08 Championship a 1-1 11,560 Gray
    h 2-1 11,915 Elliott, Lafferty
2008/09 Championship a 2-3 10,678 Paterson(2)
    h 1-2 16,580 McCann
2009/10 Carling Cup a 2-3 5,270 Fletcher, Eagles
2010/11 Championship h 3-0 14,428 Eagles(2 1pen), Iwelumo
    a 2-1 14,219 Guidetti, Bikey
2011/12 Championship a 0-2 9,692  
    h 2-0 12,355 Rodriguez, Austin
2012/13 Championship a 1-1 8,610 Austin
  FA Cup a 0-1 5,091  
  Championship h 1-1 10,584 Austin
2013/14 Championship h 1-0 11,462 Kightly

 

Click HERE to see all previous results against Barnsley