.......It’s been a miserable start to the season for the Tykes who sit rock-bottom of the Championship after eleven games played. Travelling supporters have seen Barnsley lose all six games on the road, while the south Yorkshire club’s home form is also a worry, with just five points accrued from five games.
Some bookies have a Championship Sack Race market available and David Flitcroft is now the 3/1 favourite following his team’s latest defeat, a 2-0 loss at Loftus Road. Steve Lomas and Dougie Freedman were the early frontrunners on this market although the bookmakers now think that Flitcroft, Lee Clark or Dave Jones could be the first man out of a job in the second flight.
The Barnsley manager is hoping to use the international break to take stock of a precarious situation and it’s clearly better to be rooted to the foot of the table at this early juncture, rather than have just a handful of matches to remain in the Championship.
“We’ll re-group this team and make sure we’re competitive” said Flitcroft. “These are a group of players that are willing and they want to do well. But you can’t switch off for half a second off in this league against the best teams because they punish you. We’ve got to be better at our detail. That’s something that I’ve re-iterated to the players.”
Barnsley have one of the smallest wage bills in the English second division and survival is the focus on an annual basis, with Queens Park Rangers boasting players like Richard Dunne, Joey Barton and Niko Kranjcar, all of whom are experienced Premier League players.
The Tykes now have a double header at Oakwell against Middlesbrough and Sheffield Wednesday, with Flitcroft likely to be targeting four points from these matches, although the prospects of survival are slim unless the team can start keeping clean sheets.
That hasn’t happened once in the Championship this term and it could be a case of going back to basics for the arrival of a Middlesbrough team who are also struggling this season.
Matthew Glazier is the Managing Editor of www.bettingpro.com, an award-winning sports, news and betting website.