Match Preview: Barnsley

CRAVEN COTTAGE | 15TH FEBRUARY 2020 | 15:00

Our Focus turns to Saturday’s clash as promotion-chasing Fulham host relegation beckoned Barnsley at the Cottage. The Yorkshire side sit bottom of the Championship, 9 points adrift of safety having won just 5 games and kept 3 clean sheets in the league this season, including the disappointing 1-0 opening day victory over us in August. 

Barnsley were on a promotion honeymoon back then, whilst we were still tying the final knots in our divorce from the Premier League. The pressures and circumstances have very much changed now.

With the Riverside exposed, Storm Dennis forecasts that this one will be a windy affair. We best blow The Tykes away then as nothing but a win will do this weekend.

Head To Head

  • Fulham Wins 26 | Draws 23 | Barnsley Wins 32.
  • Despite being second best H2H overall, Fulham have the upper hand in the past 10 meetings with 10 Wins | 1 Draw | 3 Defeats.
  • 75 of the 81 matches between the clubs have been played in the second tier (92.6%). The other 6 were in the third tier.
  • The clubs have never met in a cup competition.
  • Barnsley have only kept two clean sheets since their opening day 1-0 victory over us back in August.
  • They have been in the same division as us for 5 of our 8 promotions.
  • Barnsley’s record at the Cottage reads 8 Wins | 13 Draws | 19 Defeats.
  • 6 of those wins came before 1948 and they are yet won at the Cottage in the new millennium.

Barnsley in 2019/20

  • League Position: 24th.
  • League Form: LDLLL.
  • Goals: 37.
  • Conceded: 58.
  • Average Possession: 51.7%
  • Top Scorers: Cauley Woodrow (12), Conor Chaplin (11).
  • Form Table (Last 6 Matches): 20th (4pts).
  • Discipline: 75 Yellows | 1 Reds.
  • Clean sheets: 3 (1 of them v Fulham).
  • Both teams have scored in 21 of their 32 league games.

Players in Common

Image: Chris Lobina/Allsport

Kevin Betsy

Fulham: 20 apps, 1 goal (1998-2002).

Barnsley: 105 apps, 17 goals (2002-2004).

Kevin Betsy, David Button, Allan Clarke, Emmanuel Frimpong, Julian Gray, Jonathan Greening, Alfie Mawson, Mark Stallard, Andranik Teymourian, Marcello Trotta, Ryan Tunnicliffe, Tony Warner, Ryan Williams & Cauley Woodrow.

Sam’s View – @SamCole2468

After a poor performance at Millwall in which we salvaged a draw following some questionable officiating, we face Barnsley at the Cottage on Saturday. Despite dropping points in our last match, we maintain a six-match unbeaten run in the Championship and that could be important for confidence going into the weekend.

Our opposition find themselves in deep trouble, stranded 10 points from safety and relegation looks nailed on so taking three points off them is crucial and to be expected. I think revenge will be a big aspect of this game with the lads very keen to show what we are made of after our embarrassing loss to them on the first day of the season.

After the awful news that Kongolo has been ruled out for the rest of the season, it leaves us with only three natural centre backs and one of them is Le Marchand, so it is very important that Ream and Hector stay fit for the rest of the season. With so many massive tests still to come, we need to be making games against the team sitting bottom (no disrespect to Barnsley) very straight forward and not strenuous in any way for our defence. Most of our victories have been hard-fought and by small margins, it would be nice to get a comfortable afternoon under our belts. Funny enough, in the same fashion that we demolished our last opponents Millwall when they visited the Cottage last October.

Despite not winning I would only make one change to the team that played at The Den and it is depending on recovery from illness. I think that Knockaert should come back into the team in place of Kamara who in my eyes is more of an impact sub rather than a starter when played on the wing. We miss Knockaert’s energy and desire to be more direct, driving at defenders and trying to make things happen. Failing that, bring Cav back in after a nice rest, sitting out most of Wednesday night.

I think that we will win this game fairly comfortably and hopefully, if Bristol City do us a favour, move into the automatic places. With Woodrow likely to score against us (simply because this is Fulham and that’s what happens), I think we will go on to win 4-1 with Cairney and Decordova-Reid scoring as well as Mitro grabbing a brace, putting our Serbian talisman in the driving seat for the golden boot and well on course to break Glenn Murray’s 30 goal record.

COME ON YOU WHITES!