Play off winners at Burnley

Manager Andy Ritchie set about strengthening his squad for the higher league, but he had some problems and wasn't able to keep some of the existing players. Stephen McPhail, out of contract, chose to move to Cardiff, whilst goalkeeper Scott Flinders headed for Crystal Palace. Striker Chris Shuker turned down a deal and opted for a move to Tranmere.

Two or three players looked set for Oakwell but then decided on moves elsewhere, one of them was Stephen Foster who accepted a deal from the Clarets after Barnsley had revealed that he was set to join them.

Ritchie did eventually get some new players, five in all, three of them ahead of the new season and two more following the opening two games. Striker Michael Coulson was the first from Scarborough but he's yet to feature in the first team, and a week later he was joined by Sam Togwell from Palace and Doncaster's Michael McIndoe. Both of them have been regulars in the side since the season got underway.

After the first two games, they brought in Colin Healy from Livingston. He played for Coventry at the Turf on the day we missed out on the play offs by a goal but has had injury problems that blighted his time at Sunderland and he returned to Scotland. He's been used so far as a substitute by Barnsley.

On the same day as Healy arrived they also took young Arsenal goalkeeper Vito Mannone as cover, and his only appearance has been in the Carling Cup.

Their season has got off to an interesting start, they are the league's leading scorers with eleven, one more than both Norwich and Crystal Palace, but their goals against column at fourteen is three worse than anyone else.

They are still to win at Oakwell, but they did come back from two behind to draw 2-2 against Stoke on Saturday, whereas away from home they have won two of their three games to date. They were 2-0 down at Hull after just nine minutes but recovered to win.

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

Both sides are on eight points at this early stage of the season, and the Clarets will be hoping to steal a march on them tonight as we look for our third league win of the season.

Andy Ritchie has Antony Kay returning after serving a one match suspension following his red card in their recent heavy defeat at Norwich. He is expected to go straight back in with Bobby Hassell moving back to full back.

They are still without two players in Daniel Nardiello and Neil Austin, and although neither of them will be considered, both are now back in full training.

Barnsley are expected to line up: Nick Colgan, Bobby Hassell, Paul Reid, Antony Kay, Robbie Williams, Martin Devaney, Sam Togwell, Brian Howard, Michael McIndoe, Paul Hayes, Mark Richards. Subs from: Vito Mannone, Rob Atkinson, Dale Tonge, Colin Healy, Tommy Wright, Paul Heckingbottom, Anthony McParland.

Click HERE to see the full Barnsley squad.

I think there have been a good number of guessing games going on since Saturday as to just what team Steve Cotterill will name ahead of the game. He's come in for some heavy criticism since the defeat against Colchester, some questioning the way we played, and much will depend on whether he decides to switch to a more orthodox 4-4-2 formation.

There are no reported injuries, other than Danny Coyne, and that leaves us with a squad of nineteen to choose from, and to be honest, even after speaking to the manager yesterday afternoon, I have no idea what his line up might be.

We all have our own ideas and I think he might just revert to 4-4-2 and the team could look something like: Brian Jensen, Frank Sinclair, Wayne Thomas, John McGreal, Jon Harley, Wade Elliott, James O'Connor, Micah Hyde, Alan Mahon, Steve Jones, Andy Gray. Subs from: Stephen Foster, Michael Duff, Chris McCann, Garreth O'Connor, John Spicer, Graham Branch, Kyle Lafferty, Gifton Noel-Williams.

The last time the two clubs played each other in a league game at Turf Moor was during the 2001/02 season that ended with Barnsley's relegation. We'd just hit our first sticky patch of the season, with only one point coming from the last four games, and having been top we were now five points behind leaders Wolves.

We gave a full debut to new midfielder Tony Grant, whilst the Barnsley side included former goalkeeper Andy Marriott and John Oster who three seasons later would play for the Clarets.

We looked to have got right back to form when we went in front with a Chris Morgan own goal midway through the first half. That lead was doubled when Lee Briscoe netter nine minutes before half time.

Just as it seemed we would stroll to a comfortable interval lead, Kevin Ball gave away a penalty that was converted by Chris Lumsdon and seven minutes into the second half Morgan scored again, this time for Barnsley, to bring the scores level.

It was a game we should have won comfortably and we looked to at least have secured all three points when Andy Payton netted from the spot with four minutes to go. This was a significant goal for Payts, it was his 200^th league goal and was also his last for the club, coming some nine months after he had started for the last time.

The goal didn't secure the win though as Darren Barnard, and how often did he do this to us, hit home a free kick two minutes later to leave the score at 3-3.

The teams were;

Burnley: Nik Michopoulos, Dean West (Andy Payton 67), Steve Davis, Ian Cox, Lee Briscoe, Paul Weller, Kevin Ball, Tony Grant, Paul Cook (Brad Maylett 55), Ian Moore (Gordon Armstrong 84), Gareth Taylor. Subs not used: Luigi Cennamo, Dimitri Papadopoulos.

Barnsley: Andy Marriott, Lee Crooks, Chris Morgan, Jonathan Parkin (Darren Barnard 50), Chris Barker, Chris Lumsdon, John Oster, Kevin Gallen, Mitch Ward (Bruce Dyer 40), Peter Sand, Kevin Donovan (Dean Gorre 87). Subs not used: Matt Ghent, Carl Regan.