Back to Barnsley for t'cup

It's only the second time we've ever met in the FA Cup and I doubt anyone around will have too much information of the previous occasion which was 102 years ago. On that occasion we won 2-0 with goals from Ben Green and Jonathan Morley.

I don't know what the FA Cup was like back then but I do know that in my early days of watching football it was very much considered a big competition. The attendances would always be higher than for league games but that was in the days when finishing fourth in the league didn't win you a place in anything called the Champions League.

Winning the FA Cup was considered more prestigious than winning the league let alone finishing fourth, but that's not so now and the competition has lost much of its sparkle, certainly with younger supporters who often opt to give cup ties a miss.

That will be seen tomorrow when Oakwell can expect an attendance that could even be less than was there for the league clash which was played on a Tuesday night.

Sam Vokes is looking for a run in the team

Many clubs now field weakened teams in the competition, certainly some of the so called bigger clubs. Mind you, some managers don't learn when it all backfires. Only this week Rafa Benitez, who thought he could beat us in 2005 with a weakened team, came a cropper again in Chelsea's league game against QPR.

We've done it once or twice in the League Cup, with games at Hartlepool and Morecambe coming to mind, but never in the FA Cup although I'm sure, for other reasons, we won't be at full strength tomorrow.

I've just read on the BBC that we've only kept one clean sheet in the last 15 FA Cup games. Wondering whether they'd got us confused with Barnsley as they so often do I decided to check it. It's right, we've played 15 games since the 0-0 home draw against Blackburn in 2005 with the clean sheet coming four years ago at QPR in another 0-0 draw.

Whether we keep a clean sheet or not tomorrow we'll have to wait and see but it might not matter should Sam Vokes get amongst the goals as he wants to do. He got his first start since August at Sheffield Wednesday. He missed a good chance but had a very good game in his only full 90 minutes this season.

He's likely to play tomorrow, almost certain to I would think, and said today: "Every footballer wants to play every game they can. I'd like to get a run in the team and hopefully a few goals as well. Tuesday was fantastic. It was good to get 90 minutes under my belt and a great victory as well.

"If we can take that into Saturday it's another chance to get another away win and get into the next round of the FA Cup. It will be a tough game but if we can go there and do what we did on Tuesday we will have a chance.

"It's a great competition and to progress would be fantastic, and if we can win at the weekend there could be some glamorous ties coming up."

Vokes will play, but who will be alongside him. Let's get the definite absentees out of the way. Neither Ben Mee nor Charlie Austin will play. Both are progressing well according to Dyche.

Mee has an injury to his medial ligament but Austin, like the rest of the walking wounded, is suffering from what Dyche refers to as a collection of hamstring and thigh injuries.

Junior Stanislas has been out for a few games now and Dean Marney missed the win at Sheffield Wednesday, a game that saw both Martin Paterson and Chris McCann come off with injuries. It's a waiting game for all of them but if they are not fully fit it is unlikely they will be risked.

If they don't make it, and with Cameron Stewart, who was on the bench at Hillsborough, having gone back to Hull at the end of his loan it will mean a different looking squad so it is perhaps no surprise to see new signing Dane Richards added to the squad along with youth team players Cameron Howieson and Luke Conlan.

Should none of those named players be fit, I expect us to line up: Lee Grant, Kieran Trippier, Michael Duff, Jason Shackell, Danny Lafferty, David Edgar, Brian Stock, Danny Ings, Ross Wallace, Keith Treacy, Sam Vokes. Subs from: Brian Jensen, Luke O'Neill, Kevin Long, Joseph Mills, Luke Conlan, Marvin Bartley, Cameron Howieson, Dane Richards.

Barnsley go into the game with David Flitcroft in temporary charge following the sacking of Keith Hill last week. Flitcroft had worked with Hill at both Rochdale and Barnsley but tomorrow is expected to be his last game in charge.

He was in charge for the first time on New Year's Day when they were somewhat unfortunate to lose at Peterborough. It looked as though he might go with Hill a week ago but he agreed to remain until a new manager is appointed and is working alongside Martin Scott and Micky Mellon.

He's in charge of a team that is now bottom of the league and a team that has won only once since October and a team that hasn't won at home since they beat Bristol City on the first day of September.

Midfielders Jacob Mellis and Akos Buzsaky are both likely to be ruled out again with injury and Flitcroft will also have to name a side without both Jonathan Greening and Marcus Tudgay. Tudgay has suffered an injury but in any case both players, who were on loan from Nottingham Forest, have returned to their parent club.

He might also be without striker Craig Davies. He's got a clause in his contract that allows him to be move on if triggered and Bolton have triggered it as have another, as yet unnamed club.

Flitcroft has admitted that he probably hasn't been focused on Barnsley recently with his agent proactively looking for a move for him, but he said if he remains a Barnsley player he will consider him for the team.

Should they make any changes to the starting line up from Tuesday it could be recalls for Marlon Harewood and Reuben Noble-Lazarus. Both were on the bench on Tuesday.

Should Flitcroft stick with the same team, it will be: 1. Luke Steele, 34. John Stones, 15. Jimmy McNulty, 25. Martin Cranie, 33. Tom Kennedy, 8. Jim O'Brien, 11. David Perkins, 7. Stephen Dawson, 3. Scott Golbourne, 9. Craig Davies, 13. Chris Dagnall. Subs: 12. Ben Alnwick, 6. Stephen Foster, 10. Matty Done, 16. Marlon Harewood, 19. Tomasz Cywka, 24. Reuben Noble-Lazarus. 2. Bobby Hassell.

Last Time We Were There

We weren't able to find anyone that could report on that 1911 FA Cup win but we can look back at our one previous occasion when we played at Oakwell in a cup tie. That came in the 3rd round of the Carling Cup during our Premier League season of 2009/10.

Manager Owen Coyle made no less than six changes from the team that had beaten Sunderland three days earlier. In came Richard Eckersley, Christian Kalvenes, Chris Eagles, Joey Gudjonsson, Kevin McDonald and Fernando Guerrero.

Fernado Guerrero was in top form

It proved to be a miserable night for us. We were shocking and to make matters worse we saw two of our players stretchered off before half time.

We started well enough with Guerrero causing problems for the home side. He almost got himself a fortunate goal with a deflected shot but there would have been nothing fortunate had Steven Fletcher's header from the resulting corner not been cleared off the line.

It was all going well until Martin Paterson, playing on the left, went down on the quarter hour and had to be stretchered off with a knee injury that looked serious and ruled him out for almost four months.

Even so, we continued on top and got ourselves in front. Darren Moore was trying to wrestle Fletcher to the ground but the striker turned him and curled a shot into the bottom corner from just outside the box.

Barnsley were level within a minute and a half through Jon Macken and things went from bad to worse. Eckersley was yellow carded, and was fortunate not to get a second, and Brian Jensen became the second player to leave on a stretcher.

If that wasn't bad enough, Eckersley then lost possession and his error led to Barnsley going in front.

So 2-1 down at half time, two players stretchered off and we had to substitute Eckersley before he got himself sent off.

Only Eagles and Guerrero were offering anything. Both were often too wasteful when well placed but both were at least looking as though they might create something. So it was no surprise when the pair combined for the equaliser.

Guerrero beat the full back down our left, got into the box, beat another defender and then squared the ball for Eagles to stab it home from close range.

It looked as though it might go to extra time but Barnsley were allowed to win it late on when Hugo Colace was allowed to move into our box unchallenged and he headed home with ease.

Without Eagles and Guerrero this would have been a totally disastrous night when other players showed absolutely nothing.

The teams were;

Barnsley: David Preece, Jacob Butterfield, Darren Moore (O'Neil Thompson 45), Stephen Foster, Rob Kozluk, Julian Gray, Anderson Da Silva, Hugo Colace, Adam Hammill, Iain Hume, Jonathan Macken. Subs not used: Tom Rusling, Mounir El Hamour, Martin Devaney, Simon Heslop, Daniel Bogdanovic, Onome Sodje.

Burnley: Brian Jensen (Diego Penny 34), Richard Eckersley (Michael Duff 45), Clarke Carlisle, Andre Bikey, Christian Kalvenes, Chris Eagles, Joey Gudjonsson, Kevin McDonald, Fernando Guerrero, Steven Fletcher, Martin Paterson (Jay Rodriguez 15). Subs not used: David Edgar, Brian Easton, Wade Elliott, Robbie Blake.

Previous Games against Barnsley

Click HERE to see all previous results against Barnsley