There is a huge difference in the size and history of these two sides yet just a few places are between Barnsley and Nottingham Forest. It’s been a fairly inconsistent campaign for both clubs with the Tykes sat in 15th, while Forest occupy 11th spot.
Barnsley started the season in explosive fashion by their standards and despite being thrashed in their opening game, they put together some very good form that had them flirting with the top six at one point. However, since a memorable 5-2 victory over local rivals Leeds, their form has dwindled and they have collected just two points from their last four games. This form has put them into 15th position and while Mark Robins would probably welcome that finish at the end of the season, there is still a long way to go and plenty of points to achieve in order to guarantee safety. The club are still without a win on the road in the league since February and with that, it’s vital that they start to pick points up at Oakwell again.
It’s certainly been a strange season for opponents Nottingham Forest who at one point in the season appeared to be in all sorts of problems. With poor results and Billy Davies venting his frustrations in public they appeared to be in major disarray, but things have since calmed down and the club now sit in 11th position. It would be fair to say that the ship has now steadied and an unbeaten run of nine games certainly sounds impressive at first, but with seven of those being draws it’s something that still needs to be improved. However, the club reached the playoffs in the last campaign with the same points total at this stage, so it’s definitely not all bad news.
As for team news, Mark Robins just has one problem heading into this one as he sweats on the fitness of Jeronimo Neumann. However, with the summer signing yet to make a start for the club, it shouldn’t hinder Robins’ preparations too much. Nottingham Forest strangely have some managerial news for this game, with illness keeping Billy Davies away from this one. Instead, his assistant David Kelly will take charge and he just has the one piece of team news to contend with. Having missed the previous three games with a thigh problem, it does not seem likely that Rob Earnshaw will be fit this time around either and he’ll be left on the treatment table once again.
Barnsley are coming into this game with some poor form, while Nottingham Forest have strung together a very good unbeaten run lately. However, most of Forest’s results have been draws and with the City Ground outfit having a poor record at Oakwell, we’re going to predict another draw here
No comments:
Post a Comment