Team News
Barnsley are without Jim O’Brien, Peter Ramage and Martin Cranie. Midfielder O’Brien will miss the rest of the season after a knee operation whilst first choice defensive pairing Ramage and Cranie are out with hamstring injuries. Captain Cranie is sidelined for three weeks whilst on loan Ramage should return after this weekend.
Jean-Yves Mvoto, Lewin Nyatanga and Emmanuel Frimpong are all pushing to replace the three absentees.
Marcus Pedersen and Bobby Hassell remain sidelined with long term problems.
Last time out - Barnsley Team:
Luke Steele
Jack Hunt
Martin Cranie
Peter Ramage
Tom Kennedy
Paddy McCourt
Stephen Dawson
Martin Woods
Dale Jennings
Jacob Mellis
Chris O’Grady
Head to Head
Last Six Watford v Barnsley results:
21/9/13 Barnsley 1-5 Watford (Championship)
16/3/13 Barnsley 1-0 Watford (Championship)
1/12/12 Watford 4-1 Barnsley (Championship)
4/2/12 Watford 2-1 Barnsley (Championship)
17/9/11 Barnsley 1-1 Watford (Championship)
23/4/11 Watford 1-0 Barnsley (Championship)
Overall Record:
Watford Wins: 20
Barnsley Wins: 19
Draws: 16
Watford Goals: 66
Barnsley Goals: 62
At Watford:
Watford Wins: 13
Barnsley Wins: 6
Draws: 8
Watford Goals: 39
Barnsley Goals: 26
First Met In League: Watford 1-2 Barnsley Saturday 15th October 1960.
Biggest Win: Barnsley 4-0 Watford Tuesday 20th October 1964.
Biggest Defeat: Watford 4-0 Barnsley Tuesday 25th October 1988 & Barnsley 1-5 Watford Saturday 21st September 2013.
Last Home Win: Barnsley (Bobby Hassell 35) 1-0 Watford Saturday 16th March 2013.
Last Away Win: Watford 0-3 Barnsley (Kayode Odejayi 36,54 Stephen Foster 47) Wednesday 9th April 2008.
Last Home Draw: Barnsley (Andy Gray 57) 1-1 Watford (Marvin Sordell 37) Saturday 17th September 2011.
Last Away Draw: Watford (Tommy Smith 88) 1-1 Barnsley (Jon Macken 67) Saturday 11th April 2009.
Last Home Defeat: Barnsley (Jason Scotland 14) 1-5 Watford (Troy Deeney 7, Marco Faraoni 18, Fernando Forestieri 43, Sean Murray 69, Ikechi Anya 79) Saturday 21st September 2013.
Last Away Defeat: Watford (Troy Deeney 10,66, Mark Yeates 59, Matej Vydra 83) 4-1 Barnsley (Marcus Tudgay 90) Saturday 1st December 2012.
Last Away Meeting:
Saturday 1st December 2012.
Watford 4 1 Barnsley
Deeney 10,66 Tudgay 90
Yeates 59
Vydra 83
Watford:
Manuel Almunia, Fitz Hall, Daniel Pudil, Marco Cassetti, Tommy Hoban, Nathaniel Chalobah (Christian Battocchio 71), Joel Ekstrand, Mark Yeates, Jonathan Hogg, Troy Deeney (Alex Geijo 81), Fernando Forestieri (Matej Vydra 66)
Unused substitutes:
Jack Bonham, Carl Dickinson, Sean Murray, Geoffrey Bia.
Barnsley:
Luke Steele, Scott Golbourne, Stephen Foster, Jim McNulty, Martin Cranie, Jacob Mellis (Stephen Dawson 32), Emile Sinclair (Reuben Noble-Lazarus 70), Jonathan Greening (Jim O’Brien 81), Akos Buzsaky, Craig Davies, Marcus Tudgay.
Unused substitutes:
Ben Alnwick, Scott Wiseman, John Stones, Tomasz Cywka.
Still at respective clubs:
Watford: 10 (Almunia, Hall, Pudil, Cassetti, Hoban, Ekstrand, Deeney, Forestieri, Murray, Battocchio)
Barnsley: 7 (Steele, Cranie, Mellis, Dawson, Noble-Lazarus, O’Brien, Cywka)
This Season:
Last six 2013-2014 results:
Watford:
11/3/14 Doncaster 2-1 Watford (Championship)
1/3/14 Watford 4-0 Blackpool (Championship)
22/2/14 Bolton 2-0 Watford (Championship)
18/2/14 Yeovil 0-0 Watford (Championship)
15/2/14 Watford 1-0 Middlesbrough (Championship)
11/2/14 Watford 1-0 Birmingham (Championship)
W: 3 D: 1 L: 2 F: 7 A: 4 GD: +3 Points: 10
Barnsley:
11/3/14 Barnsley 0-3 Leicester (Championship)
8/3/14 Barnsley 1-0 Nottingham Forest (Championship)
1/3/14 Huddersfield 5-0 Barnsley (Championship)
22/2/14 Barnsley 1-0 Millwall (Championship)
18/2/14 Wigan 2-0 Barnsley (Championship)
15/2/14 Doncaster 2-2 Barnsley (Championship)
W: 2 D: 1 L: 3 F: 4 A: 12 GD: -8 Points: 7
Interesting Stats
Barnsley go to Vicarage Road looking for only their second win in eight meetings with Watford.
The Reds have lost three of the last four clashes, conceding 11 goals in the process.
The Hornets thumped Barnsley 5-1 at Oakwell back in September- their biggest win in this fixture. Victory for them tomorrow would give them their first double over the Reds since 2000-2001.
Barnsley have lost each of their last four visits to Vicarage Road and a Kayode Odejayi inspired 3-0 win back in 2008 is their only one there in the past nine trips.
Victory for The Reds would level the head to head meetings up at 20 wins apiece.
Watford’s Troy Deeney has scored in two of his last three appearances against Barnsley.
Watford were heavily backed to follow up their Play-Off Final defeat last season with another concerted effort for promotion this time around and they looked well placed after losing just one of their opening nine Championship games.
However they followed this with just one win from 11 which saw Gianfranco Zola resign as manager and a relative unknown in Giuseppe Sannino take over.
The Italian has managed just five win from 14 games in charge to leave the Hornets 10 points off the play-offs and looking towards a 15th season out of 17th in the second tier.
Watford have hit a bit of good form recently however winning four of their last eight, losing just two.
They have won each of their last five home games, all without conceding a goal. They have only conceded ONE goal in their last eight at home, in that solitary defeat- 1-0 to Reading.
Eight of their 11 wins this season have come at Vicarage Road and six of them without conceding.
Ref Watch:
Graham Salisbury.
2013-2014: Games: 23 Yellows: 64 Reds: 1
Salisbury has shown just one red card this season and only three yellows in his last two matches.
Last Watford match: Watford 1-2 Leeds Saturday 4th May 2013. (Yellow card for Daniel Pudil, Joel Ekstrand and two yellows for Troy Deeney)
Last Barnsley match: Sheffield Wednesday 2-1 Barnsley Saturday 30th March 2013. (Yellow card for Martin Cranie and Marlon Harewood)
On This Day:
Watford:
Played: 14 Won: 4 Drawn: 3 Lost: 7 Scored: 12 Conceded: 23.
Last match on the 15th March: 2011. Ipswich 0-3 Watford (Graham, 2, Cowie). Att: 17,789.
Last win: 2011
Last draw: 2008
Last defeat: 2003
STAT! – Watford have won just one of the last four matches on this date.
Barnsley:
Played: 17 Won: 6 Drawn: 4 Lost: 7 Scored: 25 Conceded: 32.
Last match on the 15th March: 2008. Crystal Palace 2-0 Barnsley. Att: 17,459.
Last win: 1980
Last draw: 2003
Last defeat: 2008
STAT! – Barnsley have failed to win any of their last five on this date.
Mad Sites:
Official Sites:
Other Fixtures:
Saturday 15th March 2014:
3pm:
Bolton v Brighton
Bournemouth v Middlesbrough
Burnley v Leeds
Huddersfield v Blackburn
Ipswich v Wigan
Leicester v Blackpool
Millwall v Charlton
Nottingham Forest v Doncaster
QPR v Yeovil
Reading v Derby
Sheffield Wednesday v Birmingham