The weekend of football is almost upon us as we look ahead to Charlton Athletic v Barnsley at Oakwell on Saturday afternoon (3 pm). Last season The Tykes finished League One in second place whilst Charlton placed just below them in third position, but does last season’s form mean anything to this game? Let’s take a look at the facts.
HEAD TO HEAD
This weekend’s game will be the 51st meeting between the two clubs with Charlton winning 19, losing 17 and drawing 14.
The last game we played at Oakwell was last season we lost 2-1 just before the turn of the year as Ben Reeves scored and Chris Solly saw red in the 96th minute.
But who can forget our 6-0 win with six different goal scorers? One that will forever live in our memories.
THE HOME SIDE
Barnsley were founded in 1887 by Tiverton Preedy who was a Clergyman for The Church of England. At first, Preedy had no intention of making a football team as he saw football as a “poor man’s sport” but he diverted away from Rugby and made Barnsley football club in a bid to help to poor in the Barnsley area.
The Tykes won the FA Cup in 1912 at Crystal Palace Park, beating West Bromwich Albion 1-0. Both of the teams played in a 2-3-5 formation, something you don’t hear of these days. Harry Tufnell scored the deciding goal in the 118th minute to give Barnsley their first and only FA Cup win.
The next sixty years resulted in Barnsley bouncing around the bottom divisions of English football and in 1972 Barnsley were relegated to the Fourth Division a league that they stayed in for seven seasons until they returned to the Third Division in 1979.
The Colliers spent one season in the Premier League in the 1997-98 campaign but unfortunately were sent straight back down after 99 years of trying to get to the promised land.
To this day Barnsley are the team that have spent the most seasons in England’s Second Division(now Championship) and also became the first club to achieve 1,000 wins in that league.
Barnsley do have a strong squad with new signings Malik Wilks and Mike-Steven Bahre being two of the more high profile acquisitions The Tykes made this season. Conor Chaplin also joins from Portsmouth.
The Reds have only found the net once so far this season and with our defence gelling together stronger as the games go on Charlton will not make it an easy ride for the home team.
Barnsley lost 3-0 to League Two Carlisle on Tuesday night despite fielding a team more than capable of beating a League Two side, something the Addicks could work on.
MY PREDICTION
Both teams finished last season in strong positions, but I think Charlton have the edge over Barnsley in terms of quality and passion.
Their midweek defeat to Carlisle will shake them up a bit, whilst our defeat to Forest Green shouldn’t affect us as we put out an entirely different team, I still think this will be a very tough game and coming to Oakwell is not going to be easy.
Can we replicate that 6-0 triumph back in 2013? I sure hope so, but I’m going for a 1-0 win for Charlton and Taylor with the goal.