Barnsley are hoping the improvement in their away form will continue at League One’s bottom club AFC Wimbledon tomorrow.
The Reds are currently fifth in the league but only four points off the top two with a game in hand. They are unbeaten in six matches, with their 14 points picked up in that time more than any club in the division.
But they have won just two of their last seven league games away from home, losing four. Their last two trips in the league brought clean sheets with a 1-0 win at Blackpool followed by a 0-0 draw at second-placed Luton Town. Their only goal on the road in four matches since December 1 was Cameron McGeehan’s winner at Blackpool. Barnsley are expected to take 700 away fans to London.
Coach Andreas Winkler said: “Our away form is improving. Winning away games will be very important because we cannot ask the Football Association if we can only play games at Oakwell. If you have supporters like we have, it feels like a home game.”
Midfielder Mike Bahre has an ankle injury and will miss tomorrow’s game. Winkler said: “It’s an injury which he had in his past but it looks like it’s not a bad one and he could be training again next week.”
Goalkeeper Jack Walton is ‘very close’ to fitness and could return to training within two weeks. Dani Pinillos has recovered from injury but Ben Williams has impressed at left-back in his absence.
Wimbledon are currently last in League One with 23 points from their 27 matches.They are four points below second-bottom Plymouth Argyle and five off safety.
This will be a meeting of the division’s best defence and its least threatening attack. Wimbledon have netted just 21 goals – a tally better only than Championship strugglers Bolton Wanderers in the EFL – while Barnsley have let in 22 in their 26 league games and just one in their last five.
It will be the Reds’ first trip to the latest reincarnation of the London club who have adopted the official history of former Premier League outfit Wimbledon.
They are at a higher level than MK Dons, their hated rivals who took over from the original Wimbledon in 2004, for the first time ever this season but the clubs could swap places again with MK chasing promotion from League Two.
The Dons went through their first four matches of this season unbeaten, including two wins and a 0-0 draw at Oakwell on August 18 – the first time the Reds dropped points this campaign. But, despite three clean sheets and five points from their first three games of the league season, they then won two and lost 13 of their next 15 fixtures.
That included a run of eight defeats in a row which led to the exit by mutual consent of manager Neal Ardley after more than six years in charge. He moved to League Two bottom club Notts County two weeks later while Wimbledon appointed their former player Wally Downes. The former first team coach at West Ham United and Crystal Palace, and ex-Brentford manager, has picked up nine points from his seven matches so far.
Wimbledon’s only defeat in their last six matches was at leaders Portsmouth while their last two games saw them win at Fleetwood Town in the FA Cup and draw 1–1 at eighth-placed Coventry City.
Despite their lowly position in the table, and having the worst home record in the division with 12 points from 13 games, the Dons are unbeaten in five matches – winning three – at their home ground of Kingsmeadow across 11 weeks. After beating League Two Stevenage 4-0 in the Checkatrade Trophy, they also defeated Southend United and Plymouth Argyle in league matches while drawing with Rochdale and Blackpool.
Winkler said: “We expect a really hard fight. They play very direct and defend as a group. We have to show the same performance as we did against Bradford which is not always easy. We have to be humble and make the players aware that every point in this league is crucial. It was a difficult game against them at Oakwell and maybe they know how to compete with us. We might have to be patient.”
Barnsley centre-back Ethan Pinnock was in their academy as a teenager while midfielder Cameron McGeehan was born in Kingston-upon-Thames, where the Dons now play.
Barnsley’s next two matches see them visit League One’s lowest scorers Wimbledon before they welcome Rochdale who have League One’s worst defensive record having conceded 19 and scored three in five successive losses.
They then face four more sides in the bottom half in Oxford, Scunthorpe, Gillingham and Wycombe Wanderers.
