A point earned for Aston Villa Saturday would look a lot better in the league table if the clarets can go to Oakwell on Tuesday evening and pick up something. The Home side Barnsley for this one have had a great start to the season, picking up 15 points from 19 games.
The Tykes went away to Brighton on Saturday with not much to shout about after two goals from Glen Murray brought Barnsley’s fourth league defeat of the season.
At home tomorrow night, Paul Heckingbottom will be hoping to put things right as they welcome an Aston Villa side who could just be about to kick off their season with an impressive second half performance against Newcastle United to earn them a point as the Magpies had their party spoiled after they lead at halftime.
Team lineups – previous game
Barnsley: Davies (GK), Yiadom, Roberts, MacDonald, Kpekawa, Hammill, Scowen (Morsy, 80 ), Hourihane, Watkins (Kent, 64 ), Winnall (Bradshaw, 80), Armstrong. Subs not used: Townsend (GK), Bree, Lee, Jackson.
A.Villa – Gollini (GK), Baker (Tshibola 45), Elphick (c), Bacuna, Ayew, Chester, Westwood (Hepburn – Murphy 85), Amavi, Jerdinak, Kodjia, Adomah (Gestede 62) Subs not used: Bunn (GK), Richards, Hutton, Cissoko
Head to head:
The two sides have met 15 times in their history with Aston Villa taking 11 wins, three draws, and one defeat. It certainly wouldn’t harm things if Di Matteo could bring his side and get all three points after going on a seven-game winless run since the second game of the campaign. This failing to happen could perhaps turn the Villa faithful on the former Chelsea head coach.
What would be the impact?
Three points for Aston Villa on Tuesday night would potentially move them up the table and into 14th place, still giving them hope of reaching the play-offs. On the other hand, a defeat tomorrow evening would bring both the managing staff and playing staff under great scrutiny and would inevitably move them closer to the relegation zone.
The details:
Venue: Oakwell (Barnsley)
Date and time: 27/09/16 19:45 KO
Match officials
Referee: James Addock
Assistant referees: Nick Hompton and Mark Jones
Fourth Official: Stephen Martin
