Team News:
Matt Hill is almost certainly out for the visit of Sven Goran Eriksson’s latest team. The full back has returned to parent club Wolves to try to get to the bottom of his foot injury. Luke Potter is likely to fill in. Chris Wood missed training on Thursday with a sore knee but is likely to be fit. Unfortunately Garry O’Connor’s loan return from Birmingham will not have been finalised in time. Jacob Butterfield will be hoping he did enough in his 12 minutes on the pitch against Hull to displace Hugo Colace in the centre of midfield.
Likely Lineup:
Luke Steele
Luke Potter
Jason Shackell
Stephen Foster
Bobby Hassell
Adam Hammill
Nathan Doyle
Jacob Butterfield/Hugo Colace
Paul Hayes
Andy Gray
Head To Head:
Barnsley’s narrow 1-0 win over Leicester at Oakwell last season ended a run of three straight home defeats against the Foxes. It was also their first home victory against the East Midlands side since 1991. Indeed Leicester have won more of the Oakwell meetings than Barnsley have - 18 to 16.
The two sides have been involved in some real relegation six pointers in recent seasons and had pivotal Oakwell meetings in both the 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 season.
Three years ago, in The Reds first season back in the Championship, the two sides met at Oakwell at the end of April in the final home game of the season. Both sides were locked on 50 points with Leicester 19th and Barnsley 20th in the table. In a frantic game watched by over 20,000 fans a terrible mix up between full back Neil Austin and goalkeeper Nick Colgan saw the defender score an own goal to gift the Foxes the spoils. Thankfully on the same day Leeds failed to defeat Ipswich at home which ensured survival for both teams.
Teams:
Barnsley: Colgan, Austin, Reid, Kay, Heckingbottom, Devaney, Togwell, Howard, Reid (Rajczi, 73 ) , Nardiello, Ferenczi
Subs not used: Lucas,Jones,McCann,Atkinson,
Leicester: Logan, Stearman, Kisnorbo, McAuley, Johansson, Newton, Wesolowski, Hughes, Mattock, Hume, Fryatt ( Cadamarteri, 66 )
Subs not used: Henderson, Maybury, Horsfield, Porter,
Fast forward a year and the two sides were meeting again at Oakwell towards the end of April with both sides scrapping for points at the bottom of the Championship with Barnsley in 17th position and Leicester just inside the bottom three. This time a late goal from Iain Hume- who would move to The Reds just three months later- won it for the Foxes but in the end it was not enough for survival as they finished the season with defeat to Sheffield Wednesday and a draw with Stoke which saw them relegated to League One.
Teams:
Barnsley: Steele, Foster, Nyatanga, Guedes, Kozluk, Leon, Hassell (Coulson, 85 ) , Howard, Devaney (Campbell-Ryce, 80 ) , Macken, Nardiello (Odejayi, 68 )
Subs not used: Letheren,Ferenczi,
Leicester: Henderson, Stearman, McAuley, Kisnorbo, Clapham, Bell ( Campbell, 89 ) , Wesolowski, Oakley, Hendrie ( Hayles, 43 ) , Howard, Hume ( N'Gotty, 84 )
Subs not used: Alnwick, Laczko,
Despite defeats to Leicester not leading to relegation in those two seasons, home and away defeats to the Foxes in 1997-1998 did lead to the drop out of the Premier League after just one season, with a 2-0 defeat at Filbert Street in May being the game that finally confirmed a return to Division One.
At home they were defeated 2-0 in September 1997 with goals from Ian Marshall and Graham Fenton giving Barnsley a third successive league defeat.
In the penultimate game of the season a solitary strike from Theo Zagorakis was enough to end The Reds single sojourn through English football’s top tier.
Teams:
2-0 home defeat:
Barnsley: Leese, Appleby, Sheridan, Moses, De Zeeuw, Redfearn, Liddell (Marcelle, 70 ) , Tinkler (Bullock, 64 ) , Krizan, Barnard, Ward
Subs not used: Watson,Thompson,Hristov,
Leicester: Keller, Izzet, Lennon, Heskey ( Claridge, 78 ) , Savage, Kaamark, Prior, Elliott, Marshall, Fenton ( Cottee, 67 ) , Guppy
Subs not used: Campbell, Wilson, Andrews,
1-0 away defeat:
Leicester: Keller, Savage, Guppy, Walsh, Elliott, Cottee (Fenton, 83 ) , Izzet, Lennon, Zagorakis, Marshall, Heskey
Subs not used: Arphexad,Campbell,Wilson,
Barnsley: Watson, Eaden, Moses, De Zeeuw, Redfearn, Marcelle, Jones ( Bullock, 59 ) , Tinkler ( Bosancic, 56 ) , Barnard, Ward, Fjortoft ( Liddell, 69 )
Subs not used: Sheridan, Leese,
Last season however The Reds finally ended their Foxes hoodoo. Despite a 1-0 defeat at the Walkers Stadium stretching their winless run at Leicester to five matches and extending their poor record there to just eight wins in 50 trips, they did manage to secure a 1-0 home success.
A goal from Hugo Colace 13 minutes from time was enough to give Barnsley their first victory of 2010 at the end of January.
Teams:
Barnsley: Steele, Kozluk (Moore, 17 ) , Foster, Dickinson, Shotton, Doyle, De Silva, Hammill, Colace, Macken (Gray, 76 ) , Hume
Subs not used: Hallfredsson,Preece,Potter,Butterfield,Adam,
Leicester: Weale, Brown, Powell, Hobbs, Morrison, Oakley, Wellens, Gallagher, N'Guessan ( King, 73 ) , Kermorgant ( Fryatt, 66 ) , Waghorn ( Howard, 66 )
Subs not used: Dyer, Logan, Neilson, McGivern,
Interestingly these two sides have gained more points in the second tier of English football than any other club. Barnsley have the most with 3,096 with Leicester just behind with 2,800.
Barnsley 1-0 Leicester Match Report 26/1/10
Barnsley 0-1 Leicester Match Report 19/4/08
Barnsley 0-1 Leicester Match Report 28/4/07
Last Six Barnsley v Leicester results:
26/1/10 Barnsley 1-0 Leicester (Championship)
22/8/09 Leicester 1-0 Barnsley (Championship)
19/4/08 Barnsley 0-1 Leicester (Championship)
27/10/07 Leicester 2-0 Barnsley (Championship)
28/4/07 Barnsley 0-1 Leicester (Championship)
16/12/06 Leicester 2-0 Barnsley (Championship)
Overall Record:
Barnsley Wins: 24
Leicester Wins: 48
Draws: 31
Barnsley Goals: 107
Leicester Goals: 156
At Oakwell:
Barnsley Wins: 16
Leicester Wins: 18
Draws: 17
Barnsley Goals: 66
Leicester Goals: 63
This Season:
If you were looking to describe Leicester’s season so far then one word you definitely wouldn’t use is boring. After following up instant promotion from League One with a Championship Play-Off Semi-Final last season, there was cause for optimism at the Walkers Stadium despite the fact manager Nigel Pearson defected to Hull in the summer. This was heightened by the fact that his replacement was Paulo Sousa who was fresh from narrowly missing out on the top six with Swansea in the previous campaign.
Unfortunately though things did not start well with Sousa leading his new charges to just one win from their opening nine matches. With new ownership at the club this barren start was enough for trigger happy chairman Milan Mandaric to fire the Portuguese legend. It was not a surprising decision considering Mandaric had already seen the departures of six managers in just three years at the club.
What was surprising however was Sousa’s replacement. Backed by the relative fortunes of new owner Aiyawatt Raksriaksorn, Mandaric managed to persuade former England manager Sven Goran Eriksson to make his first venture into Championship football at the start of October. The Swede watched from the stands as the Foxes secured only their second win of the season, beating Scunthorpe 3-1 and the former Manchester City and Lazio boss’ record has been patchy since taking the reigns, as he has won two, drawn one and lost one of his four league games in charge whilst seeing his side lose 4-1 at home to West Brom in the Carling Cup.
Leicester’s away form will also be a worry for Sven as the Foxes have won just one of their seven matches on the road, losing five, with their solitary success being a 2-1 win at Leeds. They managed to register their third home win last weekend by defeating Preston 1-0. This lifted the club up to 19th, two points clear of the bottom three. This should be seen as progress for Eriksson and trigger happy Mandaric as the Foxes were in the relegation zone when Eriksson arrived. One positive for The Reds is that Leicester have conceded 20 goals on their travels this season which is more than any other Championship club and they are yet to keep a clean sheet on the road.
Barnsley are desperate for the points this weekend as last Saturday’s televised stalemate with Hull stretched their poor recent run to just one win in eight. Incidentally since defeating Nottingham Forest 2-1 back in March, Mark Robins’ side have managed just four wins from 24 matches. The Reds do boast one of the best home records in the Championship this season having lost just one of the seven games at Oakwell but they have failed to win in two of their last three home matches.
Barnsley have conceded more goals in the last 15 minutes of games than any other side this season, having let in nine in the final quarter.
Last six 2010-2011 results:
Barnsley:
30/10/10 Barnsley 1-1 Hull (Championship)
23/10/10 Coventry 3-0 Barnsley (Championship
19/10/10 Burnley 3-0 Barnsley (Championship)
16/10/10 Barnsley 3-1 Nottingham Forest (Championship)
2/10/10 Barnsley 1-2 Cardiff (Championship)
28/9/10 Scunthorpe 0-0 Barnsley (Championship)
W: 1 D: 2 L: 3 F: 5 A: 10 GD: -5 Points: 5
Leicester:
30/10/10 Leicester 1-0 Preston (Championship)
26/10/10 Leicester 1-4 West Brom (League Cup)
23/10/10 Swansea 2-0 Leicester (Championship)
19/10/10 Leeds 1-2 Leicester (Championship)
16/10/10 Leicester 1-1 Hull (Championship)
2/10/10 Leicester 3-1 Scunthorpe (Championship)
W: 3 D: 1 L: 2 F: 8 A: 9 GD: -1 Points: 10
Mad Sites:
www.barnsley-mad.co.uk
www.leicestercity-mad.co.uk
Official Sites:
www.barnsleyfc.co.uk
www.lcfc.com
Other Fixtures:
Bristol City v Preston, 15:00
Coventry v Leeds United, 15:00
Doncaster v Millwall, 15:00
Hull v Scunthorpe, 15:00
Middlesbrough v Crystal Palace, 15:00
Norwich v Burnley, 15:00
QPR v Reading, 15:00
Sheff Utd v Ipswich, 15:00
Watford v Nott'm Forest, 15:00
Derby v Portsmouth, 17:20
Sunday, 7 November 2010
Cardiff v Swansea, 13:10