Christmas is cancelled, too much plum duff

His problem seemed to be with physio Ian Liversedge after Glen Little was passed fit. Glen came on during the second half as a substitute but didn't make it to the end with a reoccurrence of his hamstring problem.

“Our holiday period ended at quarter-to-five,” Stan stormed. “We're training tomorrow. Those players are having a laugh. I've stuck up for them but they are having a jolly, I'm so angry and I've told them. They've had too much turkey and too much plum duff and they have no desire. Christmas is cancelled. Everything's cancelled. There'll be no more time off until I get a better performance than that.”

We went into the game in ninth place in the league whilst Barnsley were fourteenth, six years on and we go in ninth place again although Barnsley are now somewhat lower hovering just above the drop zone in twenty-first place.

Things are a lot different at Oakwell since we played them earlier in the season. With half an hour gone that night they led 2-0 against a Burnley side who had gone five games without a win but the introduction of Gifton Noel-Williams changed all that and although Barnsley won their next game at Wolves they have struggled since and recorded only three more victories.

The poor run brought about one of the biggest shock sackings of the season. Sheffield Wednesday had asked for permission to speak to Andy Ritchie but were refused, and just a couple of weeks later, having refused him that opportunity, they sacked him and replaced him with a caretaker boss in Simon Whaley, the former Preston midfielder.

Davey took over on Wednesday 22^nd November, a day before the loan transfer deadline. It left him with a busy couple of days and by the end of his second day in charge he had been involved in six loan deals, four in and two out.

Forward Tommy Wright left for Walsall whilst there was a big surprise just minutes from the deadline when Michael McIndoe, scorer of both their goals at the Turf, moved to Wolves with a view to a permanent move.

Coming in were West Ham youngster Kyel Reid who has been used mainly as a substitute, Swansea forward Leon Knight who was very much out of favour and on the list at the Liberty Stadium, Cheltenham's Grant McCann who the Gloucestershire media were trying to link with us and Ronnie Wallwork the former Manchester United midfielder from West Brom.

Only Knight has been a regular, and for one of those loan players football isn't high on his priorities right now. Ronnie Wallwork had played twice for them when he was involved in an incident that led to him being stabbed several times leaving him in a Manchester hospital.

Barnsley won both the games in which Wallwork was involved, since then they have won two and drawn two of their four games.

Click HERE to see all Barnsley's results this season.

There are just three teams in our division that I've never seen us beat away from home. Barnsley are one of them, and not surprisingly given that our last win there was in 1932 when a goal from John Hall was enough to give us both points. I would like to see that list of clubs reduced to two tomorrow.

This is always a difficult one at this time of year. Both teams played on Saturday but there has been little reported from either club because of the Christmas break. So, as usual we'll just give the Barnsley team that were beaten 1-0 by QPR on Saturday and that was:

Nick Colgan, Bobby Hassell, Paul Reid, Antony Kay, Neil Austin, Paul Hayes, Sam Togwell, Brian Howard, Grant McCann, Leon Knight, Daniel Nardiello. Subs: Kyle Letheren, Paul Heckingbottom, Marc Richards, Martin Devaney, Kyel Reid.

Click HERE to see the full Barnsley squad.

It's the same for Burnley, whether either Frank Sinclair or John McGreal will be fit enough to rejoin the squad we don't know whilst it remains to be seen whether Danny Coyne is fit enough after coming off early in the game against Derby.

Our team could be: Brian Jensen, Stephen Foster, Michael Duff, Wayne Thomas, Jon Harley, Wade Elliott, James O'Connor, Chris McCann, Steve Jones, Gifton Noel-Williams, Kyle Lafferty. Subs: Micah Hyde, Alan Mahon, John Spicer, Garreth O'Connor, Graham Branch – plus Danny Coyne, Frank Sinclair, John McGreal if fit.

The 2001/02 season was already in freefall although we'd won at Watford in the midweek ahead of this game after a run of just one win, and that against Canvey Island, in seven games.

We were looking for a first win in 70 years at Oakwell, and a first goal in over twenty years since a 3-2 defeat in the 1980/81 season. That search for a win became even more difficult when the home side scored with just six minutes gone, as usual via a Darren Barnard free kick.

From that moment on we totally dominated the first half, as we played with a ferocious wind at our backs. We equalised through Gareth Taylor but the home side were very fortunate to go in level. They twice sliced clearances onto their own woodwork and their goal led a charmed life.

The second half saw them back in the game to an extent but the Clarets were still the better side and looked the more likely to score. Somehow we didn't and had to settle for a point in the end.

The referee had something of a quiet day too – his name was Richard Beeby.

The teams were;

Barnsley: Kevin Miller, Dave Mulligan, Chris Morgan, Steve Chettle, Chris Barker, Kevin Donovan, Chris Lumsdon (Mitch Ward 45), Gary Jones, Darren Barnard, Mike Sheron (Tony Bedeau 78), Bruce Dyer. Subs not used: Andy Marriott, Alex Neill, Lee Crooks.

Burnley: Marlon Beresford, Dean West, Ian Cox, Arthur Gnohere, Lee Briscoe, Paul Weller, Kevin Ball, Tony Grant (Alan Moore 45), Glen Little (Brad Maylett 83), Ian Moore (Robbie Blake 73), Gareth Taylor. Subs not used: Gordon Armstrong, Paul Cook.