Barnsley are hoping to complete the double over promotion-chasing Watford at Vicarage Road tomorrow evening from 7.45pm.
The Reds will still be without defenders Aapo Halme and Jordan Williams – who have each picked new injuries in the last week – as well as new signing Liam Kitching and striker George Miller.
Watford are fifth in the Championship, six points and five places ahead of the Reds, while they have the most home points and goals in the division so far this season. They have the second best defensive record, with 17 goals conceded, with the only side with a better record being Swansea who won at Oakwell on Saturday.
Barnsley beat the Hornets 1-0 on October 31 at Oakwell thanks to a superb strike by captain Alex Mowatt.
Since then, the Hertfordshire club have replaced manager Vladimir Ivic with Xisco Munoz. Their squad has been recruited for about £100million including £35million forward Ismaila Sarr.
Ismael said: "We saw in the first game at home, we played very well and made a clean sheet. We played with no mistakes and we were clinical. We have had a lot of games since then and we have more confidence. We know what we have to do against Watford.
"We can take a lot of confidence from the last game and a lot of other good games. We can show a lot of good clips to the guys.
"It will be a different situation because of the new manager, new formation and a new way of playing. "It is a big challenge but we have the solution. In the first game against Sarr it was a great team performance, and now we need the same.”
The win over Watford is Barnsley's only victory this season against the current top six, with the other six games ending in defeat. That was also the only goal the Reds have scored against the top six, with 12 conceded. The Reds have lost their last two league games against top two sides Norwich City and Swansea City.
Ismael: "We have shown great performances against the top teams. We are speaking about clinical details which make the difference. We need to improve our defensive set pieces and stop the mistakes. They destroy our performances and our chances of getting points.
"My first question yesterday to the players was: how many times Swanesa shoot at our goal? Two times. We helped them strongly and it was too easy. It is a good feeling that we can compete with second in the league, but we have to keep the game alive longer because we know we can score any moment until the end.
"It is a tough with big teams all the time but we are looking at each game one by one and the next is Watford.”
