Written by billythekid
Against Hull City at Dean Court last Saturday the Cherries suffered their second defeat in a row, the previous game was away at Luton. This is the second time this season where our team have lost two in a row this season, the other games were away at Middlesbrough and home against Blackburn Rovers last month. The next game is up in Yorkshire against the bottom club Barnsley on Saturday at 3 pm. Our club will be hoping to come back with the points.
Back in September the two sides met at Dean Court with AFCB winning 3-0, their manager was Markus Schopp, but after a run of seven defeats, his short-run in charge of the team came to an end as he was sacked after the defeat away against Bristol City. He was replaced by Poya Asbaghi who left his job as the Sweden U21 manager, he was previously in charge at IFK Gothenburg. His first game in charge was home to Swansea City, which ended in defeat.
After reaching the play-offs last season under Valerian Ismael, this season has been a very poor one for the Yorkshire club. Since the game at Dean Court, home and away Barnsley have only won one game, beating fellow relegation position club Derby County at home at their Oakwell Stadium. They have drawn 5 and lost 14. Their most recent game was away at Nottingham Forest on Tuesday night which they lost 3-0 with a depleted side, even their manager wasn’t present due to illness.
At home, they have W 1, D 3, L 5 since our game back in September.
The last time we met Barnsley at their place was December 2020 with the Cherries winning 0-4. The scorers in the first half were Philip Billing and Dominic Solanke and two further second-half goals were provided by Diego Rico and Sam Surridge.
In our away league games at Barnsley, AFCB have W 5, D 6, L 10.
In all competitions, AFCB have W 15, D 13, L17.
Barnsley v AFCB
Barnsley Win
Draw
AFCB Win
Barnsley Team News
Barnsley have had a number of players out injured, including top scorer Cauley Woodrow, Aapo Halme, Liam Kitching and Callum Britain who all missed the Nottingham Forest game. Carlton Morris had tested positive for COVID and also missed the game.
Barnsley Player To Watch
Difficult as they have a number of players unavailable, including leading scorer Cauley Woodrow. Michal Helik their centre back was voted their player of the last season and will be worth watching how he handles Solanke.
AFCB Team News
Chris Mepham went off injured against Hull City. Jefferson Lerma is a doubt after withdrawing from the Columbia squad because of testing positive for COVID. Jordan Zemura should be available for selection.
AFCB Player To Watch
We have come so reliant on Dominic Solanke this season to get us our goals. Last season we had Arnaut Danjuma sharing the load with 15 goals each, backed up by Junior Stanislas with 10 goals. This season so far Solanke hasn’t gone more than two games without scoring in the Championship. This has happened on three occasions so far, West Brom home and Nottingham Forest away, Blackburn Rovers home and Middlesbrough away and recently Luton Town away and Hull City home. So hopefully away at bottom club Barnsley he will get back on the scoresheet. The player who makes scoring opportunities for himself but just hasn’t got the power in the finish to beat the goalkeeper is Ryan Christie, he has been a real workhorse IMO in our last two defeats.
The Referee
Premier League referee Andre Marriner is in charge of this game.
We had him last season in the home FA Cup game with Crawley Town. In the past, he was the referee for some of our games in the Premier League.
Your say…
