Coca-Cola Championship Matchday Forty One: Sheffield United v Barnsley

Team News

Barnsley are missing four key players for the South Yorkshire derby with the red half of Sheffield this weekend. Filipe Teixeira, Daniel Bogdanovic and Bobby Hassell are all sidelined by injury whilst Ryan Shotton starts a two match ban for picking up 10 yellow cards. Rob Kozluk has returned to training but has no chance of making the squad which means Mounir El Haimour- who hasn’t played since Simon Davey’s final game in charge- or O’Neil Thompson- with just two appearances- could be in line for a start. Manager Mark Robins has admitted he may struggle to fill the bench tomorrow!

Likely Lineup:

Luke Steele

Luke Potter

Darren Moore

Stephen Foster

Mounir El Haimour

Adam Hammill

Hugo Colace

Nathan Doyle

Emil Hallfredsson

Jon Macken

Iain Hume

Head To Head

Barnsley are looking for their first victory at Bramall Lane in nine years. The Reds have failed to take three points from S2 since April 2001 when Martin Bullock and Neil Shipperley sealed a 2-1 win. The Reds have travelled down the Lane three times since, losing two and drawing one.

The last two years have been unkind to the Reds when it comes to facing the Blades, as United have done the double in 2007-2008 and 2008-2009- in sharp contrast to the 10 meetings preceding, when The Reds did not lose.

The most pivotal games have both come at the Lane. In the promotion winning season of 1996-1997, a late John Hendrie strike sealed a 1-0 win in the game before Christmas which took The Reds to the top of the table.

Teams:

Sheff Utd: Kelly, Beard, Parker, Spackman, Hodgson, Holdsworth, Hutchison, Patterson, Kachouro, Walker, Scott (Simpson, 60 )
Subs not used: Hartfield, Tracey,

Barnsley: Watson, Eaden, Shirtliff, Bosancic, Davis, De Zeeuw, Hendrie, Redfearn ( Jones, 20 ) , Wilkinson, Marcelle, Sheridan
Subs not used: Liddell, Bullock,

Both teams then played out a cracker in March 2000, with The Reds taking the lead three times but being held to a draw. Georgi Hristov opened the scoring, before Alex Notman levelled the scores. A Darren Barnard penalty gave The Reds a half time lead but Michael Brown made it 2-2 just three minutes after the break. Shipperley thought he had won it in the 68^th minute, but in added time, Marcus Bent grabbed United a point. A certain Rob Kozluk started for United in that game, whilst United’s keeper Simon Tracey is now Barnsley’s goalkeeping coach.

Sheff Utd: Tracey, Quinn, Kozluk (Derry, 40 ) , Murphy, Sandford, Devlin, Ford, Woodhouse (Ribeiro, 76 ) , Brown, Bent, Notman (D'Jaffo, 80 )
Subs not used: Gysbrechts, Davison,

Barnsley: Kevin Miller, Curtis, Barker, Morgan, Chettle, Eaden, Barnard ( van der Laan, 85 ) , Tinkler, Thomas, Shipperley, Hristov ( Hignett, 56 )
Subs not used: Sheron, Appleby, Brown,

The two sides also shared the spoils at Oakwell earlier this season. Back in November, Anderson and Daniel Bogdanovic put Barnsley in front, but Darius Henderson penalties levelled the scores each time. These two sides will always be remembered for the Oakwell meeting in November 2008 rather 2009 however. A bad-tempered game finished 2-1 in United’s favour but it was Chris Morgan’s sickening elbow on Iain Hume, which fractured the striker’s skull that Barnsley supporters will feel very hard to forget.

This will be the third since 1982 that Barnsley and Sheffield United have met on Easter Saturday. Back in 1999, The Reds enjoyed a 2-1 win at Oakwell. Craig Hignett gave Barnsley a 14^th minute lead, but it looked like Marcelo had grabbed a share of the spoils for United when he equalised four minutes from time. Hignett though grabbed a dramatic winner at the death.

Teams:

Barnsley: Bullock, Eaden, Krizan (Sheridan, 10 ) , Richardson, Jones, Appleby, Blackmore, Hignett, Sheron (Turner, 83 ) , Dyer, Bullock
Subs not used: Marcelle,

Sheff Utd: Kelly, Kozluk ( Jacobsen, 83 ) , Quinn, Woodhouse, Sandford, Tebily, Morris ( Donis, 64 ) , Derry ( Ford, 58 ) , Marcelo, Devlin, Campbell