Is there a better Football League story than Barnsley’s?
The Tykes were rock-bottom of League One on the 28th November and a club in crisis. Fast forward less than four months and a stunning run of W12-D1-L2 in the following 15 fixtures has pushed the South Yorkshire side into the top-six!
Caretaker manager Paul Heckingbottom has continued the revival at Oakwell following Lee Johnson’s departure for Bristol City and the interim boss has churned out W5-D1-L1 during his stint as number one.
The Walsall win all the more laudable given that top-scorer Sam Winnall was absent and their previous home outing saw Coventry brushed aside without arguably their most impressive performer this season, Adam Hammill. Both should feature in Saturday’s bout with Southend.
Barnsley are clearly in a good place right now and with six wins on the spin at Oakwell – their best run of form as hosts since 1994 – it’s hard not to like the look of the Reds this weekend at 1.83. The home side have recorded seven clean sheets in 11 league outings and look capable of overcoming their next hurdle with flying colours.
Southend have dropped off the play-off pace having W1-D1-L4 and head north without injured winger David Worrall. Ryan Leonard remains sidelined with knee ligament trouble and since the turn of the year, the Shrimpers have W1-D1-L4 in their games as guests.
Phil Brown’s boys have suffered three successive road defeats – their worst run since April 2011 – and their 39% share of the total shots-on-target on their travels is only better than Shrewsbury, Chesterfield, Blackpool and Crewe.
In contrast, Barnsley boast a 60% share at Oakwell – only Coventry, Wigan and Burton can lay claim to a more dominant record – and if we were to purely take the two teams’ respective home/away shots-on-target ratio figures, the Reds would be closer to 1.66 here.