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This fixture was one of the top three on my list this season in hoping for an away win. I've not seen us win at Ipswich or Southampton either but at least we have won there since I was born. Not so Barnsley, an incredible 75 years and more since that winner in 1932.
Admittedly we haven't played there too often but nothing has seemed to go right when we have. We were done by the performance of Kevin Lynch in 1995 whilst Iain Williamson was hardly any better last season. Then there was Boxing Day 2000 when the players had had too much plum duff, forcing Stan Ternent to cancel Christmas.
This season we go with Barnsley sitting six places above the Clarets in sixth place, and with just the one defeat at home. It's a big change round from last season when they were struggling near the bottom of the league eventually finishing in twentieth place.
That all prompted manager Simon Davey, who took over from Andy Ritchie during last season, to make a number of changes to his squad, and those changes involved a world wide search.
Including loans Davey has introduced no fewer than thirteen new players since the end of last season, and many of them are unknowns having not previously featured in English football. The list is below.
Marciano Bruma from Sparta Rotterdam
Andy Johnson from Leicester
Miguel Mostto from Cienciano
Dominik Werling from Sakayaspor
Rob Kozluk from Sheffield United
Dennis Souza from Charleroi
Heinz Muller from Lillestrom
Kim Christensen from OB Odense
Stephen Foster from Burnley
Jamal Campbell-Ryce from Southend
Lewin Nyatanga from Derby (loan)
Anderson de Silva from Everton (loan)
They started the season with a heavy home defeat against Coventry at home to suggest that nothing much had changed. But it has changed, and there's been only one defeat since and that was at West Brom on the day the Clarets were winning at Colchester.
Since then they have remained undefeated in six games including a sensational win against St Mary's against Southampton with two late free kicks from Grant McCann.
It's time, it really is time, to bring this Oakwell hoodoo to an end. Lynch isn't there today, neither is Williamson and it isn't Christmas. It might just be time to get that long awaited win at Barnsley.
Stephen Foster could well have been playing for Barnsley against us this afternoon and we might not have even noticed that they had the former Crewe centre half in their side.
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He'd played all his career prior to that with Crewe and was a regular in their side. It didn't quite happen at Burnley, and after impressing in the pre-season he found himself out of the side on the opening day of the season. He made only occasional appearances in the first team and was never really able to establish himself during that first season.
During the summer he'd decided if the chance came that he would move on and when he played in our Carling Cup tie at Grimsby it proved to be his last Burnley appearance. Barnsley came in again and this time he signed for them in a £100,000 deal and has since been a regular in their side.
Foster has spoken about his time at Burnley this week as he prepares to play against his former team mates. "I will shake Steve Cotterill by the hand on Saturday, there is definitely no bitterness there," he said. "Steve knew my situation in the summer and knew how I was feeling. He did things right and gave me the chance to come here.
"It will be a strange game for me and I am not too sure what to expect really. I have never played against one of my former clubs before so it is something I am looking forward to.
"I was not involved at Burnley as much as I would have liked although I am pleased to have been given the chance there. It just didn't work out well for me, I didn't play as much as I would have liked but it was a good experience and it felt like the right move at the time.
"There is definitely no bitterness and I am grateful Steve Cotterill gave me the opportunity to come here and play. I sat down and thought about things in the summer and decided I needed to play more games. Maybe going to Burnley was not the right move but I do not regret it and I learned a lot during that season at Turf Moor."
Simon Davey has a couple of players missing from his squad this afternoon. Istvan Ferenczi is ruled out with an ankle injury and they will also be without Anderson de Silva after the loan player picked up his fifth yellow card last time out. Bobby Hassell has returned to training but he'll have to wait at least another two weeks before getting back into action. He's been out all season.
Other than that it is a full strength Barnsley squad and the only decision for Davey will be who plays instead of de Silva with Andy Johnson, Sam Togwell, Martin Devaney and Rohan Ricketts all in the running.
Johnson is considered favourite and if that's the case we can expect Barnsley to line up: Heinz Muller, Stephen Foster, Lewin Nyatanga, Dennis Souza, Dominik Werling, Jamal Campbell-Ryce, Brian Howard, Andy Johnson, Grant McCann, Miguel Mostto, Kayode Odejayi. Subs from: Nick Colgan, Rob Kozluk, Sam Togwell, Martin Devaney, Rohan Ricketts, Kim Christensen.
No new players in the Burnley squad, no further injuries, and from what we hear all our international players have come back injury free. The boost for Steve Cotterill is that, after coming through the second half at Cardiff, Chris McCann is fit enough to resume in the midfield and he should come straight back.
It is who plays alongside him that is interesting with the manager having spoken highly this week of the recent contributions from both John Spicer and Alan Mahon. One of them will play and I suspect it will be Spicer. The manager joked that he might try Graham Alexander at full back.
One question asked is whether Stephen Jordan will keep his place after some disappointing performances, particularly in the defeat at Cardiff. I think he will and if so I exxpect the Burnley team to be:
Gabor Kiraly, Graham Alexander, Clarke Carlisle, Steven Caldwell, Stephen Jordan, Wade Elliott, John Spicer, Chris McCann, Kyle Lafferty, Robbie Blake, Andy Gray. Subs from: Brian Jensen, David Unsworth, Jon Harley, James O'Connor, Joey Gudjonsson, Alan Mahon, Steve Jones, Ade Akinbiyi.
The Burnley fans poured into Barnsley last Boxing Day in the hope of seeing the Clarets get back to winning ways and also record a double over Barnsley after overturning a two goal deficit to win 4-2 at the Turf earlier in the season courtesy of a Gifton Noel-Williams hat trick.
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In the first half we had chances but down the other end, right in front of the Burnley fans, we defended so badly it was difficult to believe. We conceded one goal, but against a better side it would have been more. We just couldn't deal with them. This was all after a bright opening from the Clarets.
A goal down at half time the Christmas cheer had all but gone, but to be fair we came storming back in the second half and only the most ludicrous of refereeing prevented us from getting more than a foothold back in the game.
There were no questions, a Gifton Noel-Williams effort was stopped on the line by a defender's hand and incredibly Williamson with the best view possible failed to see it and didn't point to the spot. A penalty scored, Barnsley down to the inevitable ten men, and half an hour to go, we would probably have gone on and won the game.
That one incident shouldn't deflect from what was a poor performance overall, but we were so much on top at the time of the incident then I'm sure we would have gone on and won it. In the end the nearest we did come to a goal was a Stephen Foster header against the woodwork, and our run had stretched to five without a win and only three points.
We'd slipped to tenth in the league and things weren't looking too good. And as we know, they got a whole lot worse.
The teams were;
Barnsley: Nick Colgan, Bobby Hassell, Rob Atkinson, Antony Kay, Neil Austin (Paul Heckingbottom 34), Martin Devaney, Sam Togwell, Grant McCann, Kyel Reid, Paul Hayes (Leon Knight 87), Daniel Nardiello (Mark Richards 87). Subs not used: Kyle Letheren, Robbie Williams.
Burnley: Brian Jensen, Stephen Foster, Michael Duff, Wayne Thomas, Jon Harley (Micah Hyde 76), Wade Elliott, James O'Connor, Chris McCann, Steve Jones (Garreth O'Connor 83), Gifton Noel-Williams, Kyle Lafferty (Alan Mahon 76). Subs not used: John Spicer, Graham Branch.
Previous 20 Seasons | |||||
Season | Div | Ven | Result | Att | Scorers |
1994/95 | 1 | h | 0-1 | 11,968 | . |
| . | . | a | 0-2 | 5,537 | . |
2000/01 | 1 | a | 0-1 | 18,725 | . |
| . | . | h | 2-1 | 15,380 | Johnrose Payton |
2001/02 | 1 | h | 3-3 | 14,690 | Morgan(og) Briscoe Payton(pen) |
| . | . | a | 1-1 | 14,411 | Taylor |
2005/06 | LC | h | 3-0 | 4,501 | Lowe Akinbiyi Spicer |
2006/07 | C | h | 4-2 | 10,304 | Harley Noel-Williams(3) |
| . | . | a | 0-1 | 12,842 | . |