Coca-Cola Championship Matchday Twelve: Doncaster Rovers v Barnsley

Team News

Reds boss Mark Robins has almost a full compliment of players to choose from as the Championship gets back underway after the two week break. Only Bobby Hassell is missing with the Achilles problem that has sidelined him for the past four weeks.

Goal-keepers Luke Steele and David Preece are both back from finger and ankle injuries respectively and Steele is likely to take the departed Bartosz Bialkowski's place in goal. Anderson De Silva is also back from the hamstring injury suffered against West Brom. Robins will be loathe to change a winning team but Anderson could replace the out-of-form Hugo Colace.

Likely Line-Up:

Luke Steele

Carl Dickinson

Stephen Foster

Darren Moore

Ryan Shotton

Adam Hammill

Nathan Doyle

Hugo Colace/Anderson De Silva

Jamal Campbell-Ryce

Jon Macken

Iain Hume

Head to Head

Barnsley finally got some much needed revenge over their South Yorkshire rivals Doncaster last season by securing their first victories over Rovers in 30 years and their first double over them in 42 long years.

The Reds secured an impressive 4-1 win at Oakwell at the beginning of October last year in a quite amazing game. The Reds were 1-0 and one man down after Darren Moore's sending off which led to calls for manager Simon Davey's head but they turned the game around thanks to an incredible solo effort from Jamal Campbell-Ryce and goals from Stephen Foster, Jon Macken and Iain Hume. The Reds then made their first ever visit to the Keepmoat Stadium at the end of the month and won 1-0 in a scrappy game thanks to a scrappy goal from Macken.

It brought some much needed relief to Reds supporters after a horrendous time against Donny when both sides were in League One in 2004-2005 and 2005-2006. Rovers won 3-1 at Oakwell and 4-0 at Belle Vue in 04-05 and then beat Barnsley THREE times the following year, 2-0 at Oakwell in the league and then 5-2 in the LDV Vans Trophy in the Reds own backyard before claiming a 2-0 win at Belle Vue. The home defeats were the only ones The Reds suffered at Oakwell in the regular season with only Huddersfield in the Play-Offs also triumphing there. Thankfully Andy Ritchie's side would get some revenge over both of them at the season's end, knocking Huddersfield out of the Play-Offs with a win at the Galpharm and winning promotion to the Championship whilst Rovers finished 8^th.

Doncaster 0-1 Barnsley Match Report 28/10/08

Barnsley 4-1 Doncaster Match Report 4/10/08

Doncaster 2-0 Barnsley Match Report 11/2/06

Barnsley 2-5 Doncaster Match Report 18/10/05

Barnsley 0-2 Doncaster Match Report 24/9/05

Last Six Doncaster v Barnsley Results:

28/10/08 Doncaster 0-1 Barnsley (Championship)

4/10/08 Barnsley 4-1 Doncaster (Championship)

11/2/06 Doncaster 2-0 Barnsley (League One)

18/10/05 Barnsley 2-5 Doncaster (LDV Vans Trophy)

24/9/05 Barnsley 0-2 Doncaster (League One)

22/2/05 Doncaster 4-0 Barnsley (League One)

Overall Record:

Doncaster Wins: 23

Barnsley Wins: 20

Draws: 18

Doncaster Goals: 91

Barnsley Goals: 86

At Doncaster- 3 at the Intake Ground, 26 at Belle Vue, 1 at the Keepmoat:

Doncaster Wins: 13

Barnsley Wins: 7

Draws: 10

Doncaster Goals: 49

Barnsley Goals: 35

This Season

Doncaster are the draw specialists of the Football League- them and Morecambe have drawn the most- eight in the first 11 games of the season. It shows that Rovers are difficult to beat in their second year at this level but have only one victory to their name this campaign- 2-0 at home against Cardiff. They have lost just twice- both away to West Brom and Middlesbrough- compared with Barnsley's six defeats.

Barnsley have seen a mini-revival under new boss Mark Robins. Having lost four of the first five games under Simon Davey, The Reds have won three of the six under Robins and today are aiming for a third successive league victory- something they haven't achieved since April 2007 when they defeated Birmingham, Southend and Crystal Palace in a row. The 2-1 win over Ipswich two weeks ago gave them back to back wins for the first time since last December.

Last Six 2009-2010 Results

Doncaster:

3/10/09 Sheffield United 1-1 Doncaster (Championship)

29/9/09 Doncaster 0-0 Swansea (Championship)

26/9/09 Scunthorpe 2-2 Doncaster (Championship)

19/9/09 Doncaster 3-3 Ipswich (Championship)

15/9/09 West Brom 3-1 Doncaster (Championship)

12/9/09 Reading 0-0 Doncaster (Championship)

W:0 D:5 L:1 F:7 A:9 GD: -2 Points: 5

Barnsley:

3/10/09 Barnsley 2-1 Ipswich (Championship)

29/9/09 Barnsley 3-1 West Brom (Championship)