Coca-Cola Championship Matchday Eight: Barnsley v Swansea City

Team News

Reds boss Mark Robins has a few injury problems for his first home game in charge. Emil Hallfredsson, who had such a fine game in the 3-2 win at Derby, is out for around three weeks with strained medial knee ligaments. Anderson De Silva, a goal-scoring replacement on Tuesday should step in. New signings Julian Gray and Nathan Doyle should be in the squad. Doyle should replace Bobby Hassell who has an Achilles injury. Jamal Campbell-Ryce and Daniel Bogdanovic remain sidelined.

Likely Line-Up:

David Preece

Rob Kozluk

Stephen Foster

Darren Moore

Nathan Doyle

Adam Hammill

Anderson De Silva

Hugo Colace

Jacob Butterfield

Andy Gray

Iain Hume

Head to Head

Swansea will always hold a special place in the hearts of Barnsley fans after The Reds secured promotion to the Championship by beating the Swans in the League One Play-Off Final in 2006. That though is the only success in the last six meetings. Without the help of a penalty shootout, The Reds haven't beaten the men from South Wales since November 1983.

In the Play-Off season of 2005-2006, The Reds were beaten 3-1 at the Liberty Stadium and drew 2-2 at Oakwell, whilst last season, The Reds led 2-0 at Swansea thanks to goals from Jon Macken and a Jamal Campbell-Ryce penalty. Two strikes from Jason Scotland, including one in the final seconds of the game earned the Swans a share of the spoils.

The return game at Oakwell was a horror show. Swansea raced into a 3-0 lead which led to calls for the head of Simon Davey, and Daniel Bogdanovic's penalty was the solitary reply. Amazingly including the shootout there have been penalties in the last three games- and Barnsley have scored all theirs.

Barnsley 2-2 Swansea Match Report 4/3/06

Last Six Barnsley v Swansea Results:

13/4/09 Barnsley 1-3 Swansea (Championship)

9/12/08 Swansea 2-2 Barnsley (Championship)

27/5/06 Barnsley 2-2 Swansea (League One Play-Off Final)

Barnsley won 4-3 on pens

4/3/06 Barnsley 2-2 Swansea (League One)

29/8/05 Swansea 3-1 Barnsley (League One)

10/3/84 Swansea 1-0 Barnsley (Second Division)

Overall Record:

Barnsley Wins: 23

Swansea Wins: 31

Draws: 12

Barnsley Goals: 86

Swansea Goals: 103

At Oakwell:

Barnsley Wins: 19

Swansea: Wins: 8

Draws: 6

Barnsley Goals: 53

Swansea Goals: 35

This Season

It has been somewhat of a transitional second season in the Championship for Swansea. After promotion in 2007 under Swansea legend Roberto Martinez, the Spaniard led the Swans to eighth position last season. The summer saw change at the Liberty however, Martinez and the top scorer from the last two seasons, Jason Roberts, both defected to Premier League side Wigan, and Paulo Sousa who had only modest success at moneybags QPR took over. Swansea have won just once in their opening six games this season and are yet to win at home.

Barnsley are also yet to win at home this season- having lost three out of three, but they did finally get their first success and thus move off the bottom of the table with the 3-2 win at Derby County on Tuesday. This ended a run of five straight defeats, after the 2-2 draw at Sheffield Wednesday on the opening day of the season. The last time The Reds lost their first three home games was at the start of the 1991-1992 season when Sunderland (0-3), Brighton (1-2) and Watford (0-3) were victorious. The fourth home game was a win though- 1-0 v Ipswich. Barnsley have never lost their first four home games of the season.