Barnsley vs Sheffield Wednesday – 21/03/2023
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Fourth will take on the league leaders at the Oakwell Stadium this Wednesday night as Barnsley play hosts Sheffield Wednesday with the Tykes sitting behind the League One frontrunners by nine points with a chance to make it six.
In reality, it seems as if the league title is Wednesday’s to lose with them having two games in hand to play on second-placed Plymouth Argyle with a one-point gap already. Ipswich Town are also three behind having played two more games as well.
Heading into this one, however, Barnsley are sitting behind Wednesday by nine points and a win here would no doubt be their biggest of the season.
So far, the Tykes have won 21 games and lost only eight and sit with the best defensive record in League One after Wednesday, as they’ve let in just 29 goals from 35 games.
Michael Duff’s side are coming into this one in their best stint of form all season long, as they’ve not lost a game since losing to Charlton Athletic 2-0 back in the middle of January.
Barnsley have since gone on to register nine wins and two draws in the 11 games since then, defeating sides like Derby County 4-1, Cheltenham Town 4-0, Plymouth Argyle 3-0 and Portsmouth 3-1.
It means they’ve beaten two sides in the top six and even went on to beat seventh-placed Wycombe Wanderers 1-0 away from home last time out.
Wednesday did drop points for the first time in six games last Friday night when they drew at home to Bolton Wanderers 1-1. The club previously beat Charlton, Peterborough and Portsmouth by a 1-0 scoreline after hammering MK Dons 5-2 and Morecambe 3-0.
Darren Moore’s men have now drawn nine games and lost only three this season with 62 goals scored and a league’s best defensive record of only 23 goals let in.
In fact, quite incredibly, one of those losses for Darren Moore’s men came against Barnsley in the last outing, as Devante Cole scored in the first half before James Norwood made it 2-0 and inflicted Wednesday’s first defeat of the season and their only loss at Hillsborough this campaign.
Things have changed quite a bit since, however, but both teams are set to be right in contention for promotion into the Championship. Barnsley now have a gap of five points on Bolton in sixth too, and it would be quite disastrous for them if they were to lose their playoff position.
Forebet predicts a win for Wednesday and for the game to see under 2.5 goals.
