Barnsley remained in the bottom three of the Championship following their 1-0 defeat away from home at Bristol City on Saturday, but at least The Tykes return to Oakwell for this Tuesday night clash against Preston North End where the hosts will be confident they can take something out of.
Although Barnsley suffered a previous away defeat at Derby County in a 2-1 loss, Barnsley have made a dramatic improvement on home turf at Oakwell with the hosts bringing a 5-match unbeaten run which includes wins against Hull City, QPR and Huddersfield Town and points gained in draws with Reading and West Brom.
This is a vast improvement upon a previous poor period of 8 home matches without a win and the arrival of Austrian manager, Gerhard Struber, has certainly helped tighten things up for the Yorkshire outfit.
The draw has been a regular fixture though at Oakwell with Barnsley drawing 6 of their 14 home matches to date and along with West Brom and Blackburn Rovers, they’ve been involved in the most number of stalemates at home in the Championship to date.
Onto Preston North End then, and the visitors ended a dismal run of 5 matches without a win in the second tier on Saturday when Alex Neil’s side grabbed a much-needed three points with a 2-1 home win against struggling Charlton Athletic.
📽️ "We've got Bauer..." 🎶@patrick5bauer was the matchwinner against his former club yesterday afternoon with this powerful header from @joshharrop23's corner! 💥Highlights on iFollow PNE ➡️ https://t.co/TrIjTrmNkm #pnefc pic.twitter.com/WOp6TTocF6— Preston North End FC (@pnefc) January 19, 2020
📽️ "We've got Bauer..." 🎶@patrick5bauer was the matchwinner against his former club yesterday afternoon with this powerful header from @joshharrop23's corner! 💥Highlights on iFollow PNE ➡️ https://t.co/TrIjTrmNkm #pnefc pic.twitter.com/WOp6TTocF6
Preston had previously struggled to regain their form from earlier in the season as they’d suffered back-to-back defeats to Reading and Middlesbrough, both of which were on home turf at Deepdale, while also being involved in 4 draws of this recent 6-match barren period.
The recent win against Charlton has lifted Preston back up to 9th place in the Championship but undoubtedly it’s been Preston’s results at Deepdale that have kept the Lancashire side in the top half of the division to date.
The visitors have won 10 of their 12 wins to date this season at home but their away form has been their achilles heel as they’ve picked up just 2 wins out of their 13 away matches on the road so far this term.
In addition, Preston are without a win from their last 6 matches on their travels, of which they’ve drawn their last 3 away on the trot, so we could be heading for stalemate at Oakwell this Tuesday night.