Team News
With Keith Fahey and Nikola Zigic returning in midweek Blues are now only missing Jordon Mutch and Enric Valles.
For Barnsley striker Ricardo Vaz Te is fit again but winger Matt Done (hamstring) remains doubtful while summer signing Craig Davies (groin), teenager Reuben Noble-Lazarus, defender Miles Addison (both ankle) and midfielder Goran Lovre (knee) all remain sidelined.
Last Meeting
The last meeting was on a Tuesday night in March 2009. Martin Taylor rescued Blues with a late equaliser to make it 1-1. Earlier that season the game at St Andrews finished 2-0 to Blues with goals by Kevin Phillips and Garry O’Connor.
Recent Form
Barnsley are 17th having won one and drawn five of their opening seven fixtures. They are below Blues in the table only on goals scored having found the net only five times this season.
Blues are on a run of three straight defeats in all competitions but have won both of their home games in the league.
Outlook
Well here’s a rare event, a game on a Saturday afternoon. While I am happy about our Europa Cup participation I do wish we could be playing on Saturdays more often. It is the proper time for football to be played.
The first thing we need to do tomorrow is break our three game losing streak and no disrespect to Barnsley but this is a great chance of doing it. Our home form has remained solid and with our players coming back we should be taking all three points. Our biggest weakness has been our defence but I’d hope goal shy Barnsley wouldn’t trouble us too much. Going forward I’d back us to score against anybody especially with Zigic back as another weapon. How times have changed. Attack stronger than defence? I wouldn’t have written those words in the last four or five seasons.
A problem for Chris Hughton may be that now he has a bigger squad to choose from he won’t know what his best side is. If ten Blues fans were asked to name theirs I suspect we’d get ten different teams. One thing we would probably agree on though is that it wouldn’t have Jonathan Spector in central midfield, Wade Elliot on the right and Liam Ridgewell at centre back. All those players are better used elsewhere. Probably the first name on my team sheet would be Chris Burke who’s quickly becoming my new favourite player. It’s great to have players out wide who take people on and trouble defenders.
Looking at the fixture list it looks like we could have as many as four games in hand on other sides by Christmas although we may be able to catch up during vacant Carling Cup weeks. With that in mind we are not likely to be challenging around the top of the table for a good few months so the important thing is to stay in touch. Home wins will be vital so it’s crucial to get the three points tomorrow. After Barnsley we are away at Nottingham Forest (Following a trip to Slovenia three days earlier) and then there is an international break. If we go into that with only seven or eight points then we will be troubling the relegation zone rather than the playoff one.
So here’s hoping for a good performance tomorrow with a few goals to cheer. I’d also hope for a decent crowd as well, it’s a Saturday after all.
My Prediction Blues 2 Barnsley 0.
C’mon you Blue Boys!
Nice summary but don’t bank on a good attendance though. I think we will do well to get 16,000.