Barnsley v Forest

Mission away win moves on this week to Barnsley with the reds on a winless streak stretching back to January on the road & with promotion rivals West Brom facing a tricky tie at Swansea this really could be a great time to get back on track as it's followed by two City Ground games against relegation threatened teams.

the pressure is hard for a young team to handle when you are competing at the top end

Carl Dickinson is out with ligament damage and Nathan Doyle may also miss out after complaining of having trouble with his vision & Rob Kozluk continues on the treatment table. Luke Steele is set to return though after completing a one match suspension.

The Tykes striker has scored 8 & assisted two more from just 15 starts this season (with a further 8 substitute appearances) and will be a threat for most of the afternoon. Although Anderson De Silva has spent most of his time on the bench recently he could also be a thorn in Forest side if chosen.

Paul McKenna is still out & will remain so for some time yet, Julian Bennett played a further 60 minutes in a reserve game last week but is also still some way off returning to 1st team action while Joel Lynch's thigh injury has seen him disappear off the face of the Earth. McCleary and Perch have also been ruled out of this game with with knee and ankle injuries respectively. Majewski & Earnshaw were both put on the bench for the previous games but will be hoping for recalls for this game.

Forest's top goal scorer in the league has now notched up 12 league goals in 24 appearances and 10 of those from the bench. After another scoring appearance from the bench an Saturday he will be expecting a starting place.

There have been 65 previous league meeting between these two teams, the most recent being the 1 - 0 Forest win at the City Ground earlier this season with Guy Moussi scoring his only English goal to date in injury time when he was then sent off for celebrating in the crowd. From those previous 65 games Forest have taken 25 wins, Barnsley 23 with 17 games drawn. Those games have produced 181 goals with the Tykes taking 85 of them.

Barnsley are very tight at the back at home having kept clean sheets in 4 out of the last 5 at Oakwell & last weekends goalless draw with Crystal Palace was the 1st time they have failed to score at home in the league since September. They have a habit of picking up decent results against the top teams at Oakwell too having beaten Blackpool, Leicester & Cardiff at home this season along with a creditable draw with Newcastle.

Kevin Friend of Leicestershire will take charge of this game, he was the official when Forest started losing away in the FA Cup defeat to Birmingham so hopefully he'll be the official that sees us start winning away too. Most Forest fans will remember him from the dark old days in League One when he took charge of the 5 - 0 away defeat to Oldham. He will be assisted by Nigel Bannister of East Yorkshire and Graham Stott of Oxfordshire while the fourth official will be Anthony Taylor of Cheshire.

Five away defeats is enough, can't see any better than a draw in this game though. Barnsley 1 - 1 Forest

Saturday, 20 March 15:00
The Football League Championship
Nottm Forest v Peterborough

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