Strikers Kieffer Moore and Cauley Woodrow could return to training today with a chance of playing at Charlton Athletic tomorrow, says Andreas Winkler.
Top-scorer Moore missed the last game with an ankle injury while Woodrow has not played since arriving in August.Jacob Brown, 20, played on his own up front in the 3-2 win over Luton Town which was his first Oakwell start.
Coach Winkler said: “We hope Kieffer and Cauley can train tomorrow, but we’re not sure. Kieffer has a swollen ankle so we have to see what pain he has and if there is any risk. Cauley has a muscle injury and needs to be at least 95 per cent but he is at 90 at the moment.”
The Reds did not start any of the six oldest players in their squad on Saturday, due to international call-ups and injuries.Adam Davies and Kenny Dougall are now back in training at Barnsley after international duty and could replace Jack Walton and Cameron McGeehan, despite the latter scoring against his former club.
Dani Pinillos was fit enough to come off the bench for Ben Williams against Luton and could start in place of the 19-year-old. Winger Lloyd Isgrove and left-back Zeki Fryers are close to full training.
Charlton’s scheduled match against Walsall on Saturday was called off after the Addicks received four international call-ups. They fell down from ninth in the League One table to 11th over the weekend and are now seven points behind Barnsley having played the same number of games.
Charlton’s most recent match was an 8-0 win in the Checkatrade Trophy at League Two Stevenage on Tuesday of last week. It was the biggest victory in their history and saw defender Toby Stevenson, 18, score a hat-trick on his senior debut. Athletic are winless in their last three league matches having lost 2-1 at home to Coventry City after a 5-3 defeat at Scunthorpe and a 2-2 draw at Luton.
Charlton are managed by former England international Lee Bowyer who was given his first senior coaching role in March this year, after Karl Robinson moved to Oxford. Bowyer led them into the play-offs in which they lost to Shrewsbury Town in the semi-finals.
Bowyer won all three of his matches against Barnsley as a player, two with Leeds United in the Premiership in 1997/98 and one with Ipswich Town in the Championship in 2011.
Winkler said: “They are pretty good. They almost got to the Championship last season and they have a very ambitious manager who played in higher leagues. They have a big stadium and we will have a lot of supporters. We will need a very good performance to win there. They won’t park the bus. They have high quality players and they will try to find our weaknesses.”
This will be the 48th meeting between the clubs, with Barnsley losing 18 and winning 16 while there have been 14 draws. The Reds have had the better of the last nine meetings, winning four, drawing four and suffering only one defeat which was a 6-0 home thrashing under David Flitcroft in April 2013.
Barnsley had never won at The Valley in their first 21 visits from 1930 to 2007, losing 13 and drawing eight. But they have won each of their three games there in the last ten years. They triumphed 3-1 in 2008, 1-0 in 2012 thanks to a Tomasz Cywka goal, and 2-1 in 2014 with Jean Yves M’voto and Tom Kennedy netting.
