Barnsley’s fight for Championship survival has taken an unexpected and - unfortunate for the footballing family – boost with the news that relegation rivals Wigan Athletic have today had to enter administration.
Upon confirmation of this the Football League confirmed that the Latics would be hit with a 12 point deduction however it will depend on their final league position after 46 games of 2019-2020 to determine when it will be implemented.
If Wigan remain outside the relegation places (which looks likely as they are currently 14th and eight points clear) then it will be implemented this season which, if Wigan do not finish at least 12 points clear of third bottom could see them relegated, whereas if they do finish in the bottom three anyway they would start the 2020-2021 League One campaign on -12 points.
Wigan are the form team in the division having won six of their last seven matches, keeping clean sheets in all seven games and are Barnsley’s next opponents at Oakwell following the Reds back to back away games against two other relegation rivals in Stoke and Luton.