Barnsley believe they can go through the entire League One season unbeaten at home while they feel they are better equipped to get revenge tomorrow on Wycombe Wanderers, the last side to beat them in the league.
The second-placed Reds are unbeaten in 19 league matches at Oakwell, including all 15 this season, which is their best run since 1968 when the postwar record of 23 was set. If they do not lose at home to Wycombe tomorrow and Burton Albion on Tuesday, they will be two games away from an entire year without defeat at Oakwell since Millwall won there on March 17, 2018.
Daniel Stendel’s Barnsley have won their last five home matches which is the best run since six successive victories on the way to promotion in 2016. Should they win both matches over the next four days, it will be the longest winning run at Oakwell since 1984. Assistant manager Dale Tonge was part of the 2005/06 promotion squad which lost just once at home all season.
He told the Chronicle: “I 100 per cent think we can go unbeaten all season at home. We have a very good group of footballers here. They are in a very, very good frame of mind but their feet will be very firmly on the ground and the gaffer’s mentality will not let them get ahead of themselves.”
Tonge added: “Every team will want to be the first ones to beat us at Oakwell because we are on a pedestal now. I think the players are playing with freedom, the gaffer allows them to express themselves and they play a ‘no fear’ style of football.”
After Saturday’s 4-1 success at Gillingham and 1-1 draws for the three sides below them, Barnsley are three points clear in second, six points behind leaders Luton Town who have played a game more.
Fourth-placed Sunderland were held 1-1 at home to Blackpool on Tuesday to move within four points of the Reds with a game in hand. The Black Cats play tonight at home to Accrington Stanley before Barnsley take on Gareth Ainsworth’s Wycombe.
Barnsley were beaten 1-0 by the Chairboys at Adams Park on December 8, thanks to a goal by Randell Williams, and fell out of the top six the following week. But, in more than two months since that defeat in Buckinghamshire, they are unbeaten in 11 games, with eight wins and three draws. It is their longest unbeaten run since 2005.
Tonge said: “When we played Wycombe last time, they did a bit of a job on us and we have focused all our energies on how to beat them. They are a very good, organised team who reflect their manager with their endeavour and desire and workrate.
“The biggest thing was how they set up against us and played ‘no risk football’ but we have put things in place to beat them. It’s a good motivation to have. We have watched that game back more than most. It wasn’t a good performance but you have to give credit to Wycombe because their gameplan worked.
“We are more equipped to win that kind of game now and we have beaten several opposition who have played like that since the last Wycombe game.”
Wanderers – who came up from League Two last season – are tenth in League One, ten points off the play-offs and ten above the relegation zone. They picked up just one point from the five games after their success over the Reds. They then went unbeaten for five matches, winning three, before a 3-0 loss at Luton on Saturday with ex-Red George Moncur scoring twice.
That was the start of a tricky run of fixtures for Ainsworth’s men who face six of the top seven in ten games. Right-back Jason McCarthy, who left Barnsley for Wycombe in August after a season at Oakwell, has made more league appearances for the Chairboys than any other player this campaign.
Wycombe have visited Oakwell twice. They drew 1-1 in October 2002, with Keith Ryan cancelling out Rory Fallon’s opener before half-time, then returned in February 2004 for a goalless draw. n Former Barnsley head coach Paul Heckingbottom has been appointed as head coach of Scottish Premier League side Hibernian.
