Team News
Marcus Tudgay and Jacob Mellis are both suspended. Tudgay is serving a three match ban following his sending off at Leeds last Saturday, this means he has now played his last game for the club, whilst Mellis picked up his fifth booking of that season in the same game and misses one match.
Paddy McCourt and Chris O’Grady remain doubts. McCourt is almost certain to miss out with his hamstring injury whilst O’Grady who has now missed six matches with a calf problem, will be assessed on Christmas Day.
Goalkeeper Jack Butland also plays his final game of his current loan deal from Stoke.
Last time out - Barnsley Team:
Jack Butland
Scott Wiseman
Martin Cranie
Peter Ramage
Lewin Nyatanga
Bobby Hassell
Jacob Mellis
David Perkins
Tomasz Cywka
Jim O’Brien
Marcus Tudgay
Head To Head
Last Six Barnsley v Bolton results:
2/3/13 Barnsley 2-3 Bolton (Championship)
17/11/12 Bolton 1-1 Barnsley (Championship)
28/4/01 Barnsley 0-1 Bolton (Division One)
11/11/00 Bolton 2-0 Barnsley (Division One)
26/2/00 Barnsley 1-1 Bolton (Division One)
18/9/99 Bolton 2-2 Barnsley (Division One)
Overall Record:
Barnsley Wins: 11
Bolton Wins: 13
Draws: 12
Barnsley Goals: 47
Bolton Goals: 63
At Oakwell:
Barnsley Wins: 9
Bolton Wins: 4
Draws: 6
Barnsley Goals: 29
Bolton Goals: 22
First Met In League: Barnsley 1-6 Bolton Tuesday 26th December 1899.
Biggest Win: Barnsley 3-0 Bolton Saturday 12th September 1981 & Saturday 26th November 1994.
Biggest Defeat: Bolton 8-0 Barnsley Saturday 6th October 1934.
Last Home Win: Barnsley (Darren Barnard 26) 1-0 Bolton Saturday 3rd January 1998.
Last Away Win: Bolton (John McGinlay, Mark Seagraves) 2-3 Barnsley (Charlie Bishop, Andy Payton 2) Sunday 8th May 1994.
Last Home Draw: Barnsley (Eric Tinkler 46) 1-1 Bolton (Dean Holdsworth 43) Saturday 26th February 2000.
Last Away Draw: Bolton (Kevin Davies 24) 1-1 Barnsley (Craig Davies 65) Saturday 17th November 2012.
Last Home Defeat: Barnsley (Tomasz Cywka 47, Chris O’Grady 53) 2-3 Bolton (David Ngog 15, Jay Spearing 38, Craig Dawson 59) Saturday 2nd March 2013.
Last Away Defeat: Bolton (Michael Ricketts 14, Ricardo Gardner 28) 2-0 Barnsley Saturday 11th November 2000.
Last Home Meeting:
Saturday 2nd March 2013.
Barnsley 2 3 Bolton
Cywka 47 Ngog 15
O’Grady 53 Spearing 38
Dawson 59
Barnsley:
Luke Steele, Scott Wiseman, Martin Cranie, Tom Kennedy, Jim O’Brien (Jacob Mellis 65), David Perkins, Tomasz Cywka, Kelvin Etuhu, Ryan Tunnicliffe (Jason Scotland 67), Chris Dagnall, Chris O’Grady (Marlon Harewood 60).
Unused Substitutes: Lukas Lidakevicius, Bobby Hassell, Stephen Foster, Reuben Noble-Lazarus.
Manager: David Flitcroft.
Bolton:
Adam Bogdan, Marcos Alonso, Zat Knight, Craig Dawson, Sam Ricketts, Chris Eagles (Medo 65), Jay Spearing, Darren Pratley, Chung-Yong Lee, David Ngog, Craig Davies (David Wheater 79).
Unused Subs: Andy Lonergan, Stuart Holden, Kevin Davies, Marvin Sordell, Steve De Ridder.
Manager: Dougie Freedman.
Still at respective clubs:
Barnsley: 14 (Steele, Wiseman, Cranie, Kennedy, O’Brien, Perkins, Cywka, Etuhu, Dagnall, O’Grady, Hassell, Mellis, Scotland, Noble-Lazarus)
Bolton: 13 (Bogdan, Knight, Eagles, Spearing, Pratley, Lee, Ngog, Davies, Lonergan, Wheater, Medo, Holden, Sordell)
This Season:
Last six 2013-2014 results:
Barnsley:
21/12/13 Leeds 0-0 Barnsley (Championship)
14/12/13 Barnsley 1–1 Yeovil (Championship)
7/12/13 Burnley 1–0 Barnsley (Championship)
3/12/13 Brighton 1–2 Barnsley (Championship)
30/11/13 Barnsley 0-3 Birmingham (Championship)
23/11/13 Millwall 1-0 Barnsley (Championship)
W: 1 D: 2 L: 3 F: 3 A: 7 GD: -4 Points: 5
Bolton:
21/12/13 Bolton 1-1 Charlton (Championship)
15/12/13 Wigan 3-2 Bolton (Championship)
7/12/13 Bolton 3-0 Doncaster (Championship)
3/12/13 Bolton 0-1 Huddersfield (Championship)
30/11/13 Middlesbrough 1-0 Bolton (Championship)
23/11/13 Watford 0-1 Bolton (Championship)
W: 2 D: 1 L: 3 F: 7 A: 6 GD: +1 Points: 7
Interesting Stats
Bolton are unbeaten in their last eight meetings with Barnsley and have not lost to them in a league encounter for nine.
The Trotters have won their last two matches at Oakwell, and are unbeaten there since the 1997-1998 season.
This will be only the sixth meeting between the two sides this century and the last time The Reds defeated Bolton, Danny Wilson was the manager.
Eight of the last 13 meetings have ended in draws.
Barnsley need three more goals to reach 50 v Bolton, but the last time they netted three against the Trotters was back in 1999.
This is the third time the two sides have met on Boxing Day. The first ever clash between the two sides was at Oakwell on Boxing Day 1899 and the visitors waltzed away with a 6-1 win! They also met on the festive date at the Reebok when both sides were in the Premier League in 1997. That encounter finished 1-1.
Early season promotion favourites Bolton sit just six places and seven points above Barnsley after winning just five of their 21 matches so far this season.
Three of those wins have come on the road, with all three coming within their last five away matches.
Bolton have won one of their last five games overall, losing three.
Like Barnsley, Bolton are yet to win this season when they have fallen 1-0 behind. The last time they achieved this was February.
Dougie Freedman has won three and lost just one of his five games against Barnsley as a manager for Crystal Palace and Bolton.
Record: WLWDW
As Crystal Palace manager: Won 2-1 2/4/11, lost 2-1 6/12/11, won 1-0 20/3/12.
As Bolton manager: Drew 1-1 17/11/12, won 3-2 2/3/13.
Danny Wilson takes charge of his first Barnsley home match since the final day of the 1997-1998 Premier League season. He won each of his final three home games as Reds manager at this level, back in 1996-1997.
Back to the present day though and Barnsley have won just two of their last 23 matches and eight from the last 35.
They have won just twice in front of their own supporters (the joint lowest in the division), the last of which was back on the 19th October. Their record of just three home defeats however is the best amongst the bottom six teams, and only tomorrow visitors have drawn more home games (6) than The Reds’ five.
The Reds have lost just one of their last six home matches but have managed to score more than once at Oakwell just twice this season.
Barnsley have failed to score from open play in six of their last seven matches, and they have failed to score at all in five of those.
They have gone seven matches since they last netted a second half goal and have managed just ONE in the last 11 games.
Barnsley are bottom on Christmas Day. It is the first time they have propped up a division on the festive day since 1997-1998 when they were relegated from the Premier League at the end of that season, when Danny Wilson was last in charge.
In the last 14 seasons only ONE side has been bottom of this division on Christmas Day and gone on to survive. That was Doncaster Rovers in 2008-2009 who recovered fantastically to finish 14th. Before and since then you have to go all the back to 1998-1999 (exactly 10 years previously) when Crewe recovered from bottom to finish 18th.
Barnsley are yet to win a game this season if they are not winning at half time.
Danny Wilson has now won just one of his last ten matches as Barnsley manager.
Barnsley’s goal difference of –19 is the joint worst in the Championship (along with Doncaster). Only Crewe with –25 have a worse GD in the Football League.
Ref Watch:
Andy Haines:
2013-2014: Games: 16 Yellows: 45 Reds: 8
Andy Haines has issued eight red cards in just 16 games, an average of one every two matches. He has shown three in his past two matches.
Last Barnsley match: Nottingham Forest 0-0 Barnsley, Saturday 20th April 2013. (Yellow card shown to Martin Cranie and Andrai Jones)
Last Bolton match: Bolton 4-1 Hull, Saturday 23rd February 2013. (Yellow card shown to Marcos Alonso, and Craig Dawson)
On This Day:
Barnsley:
Played: 86 Won: 33 Drawn: 24 Lost: 29 Scored: 124 Conceded: 126.
Last match on the 26th December: 2012. Barnsley (Greening) 1-2 Birmingham. ATT: 9,191.
Last win: 2008
Last draw: 2007
Last defeat: 2012
STAT! – Barnsley have lost on Boxing Day in each of the last three years. Prior to this they had lost just one of 12.
Mad Sites:
Official Sites:
Other Fixtures:
Thursday 26th December 2013:
12:30pm:
Charlton v Brighton
1pm:
Watford v Millwall
3pm:
Blackburn v Sheffield Wednesday
Bournemouth v Yeovil
Doncaster v Ipswich
Huddersfield v Derby
Leicester v Reading
Middlesbrough v Burnley
Wigan v Birmingham
5:15pm:
Blackpool v Leeds
7:30pm:
Nottingham Forest v QPR