Barnsley and Stoke clash at Oakwell with both sides looking to sneak into the play off positions

Ninth-placed Stoke City travel to tenth-placed Barnsley as both sides look to extend their winning streaks and keep themselves within distance of the play offs.

Both of these sides go into Wednesday’s game with a small run of form under their belt, which was definitely needed. The home side have now won three in a row, whereas Stoke have won two in a row.

Stoke especially will be hoping that their two wins can be the start of recovering their season as before those two games they were only able to win one game in their previous 15. Barnsley’s form was not quite that bad, as their bad spell resulted in one win in six.

Virtually nothing can separate Valerien Ismael and Michael O’Neill’s sides at the moment. They have both returned to form at the same time after bad periods, both teams sit on 45 points in the middle of the league and their goal scoring and conceding records are nearly identical:

Barnsley – GF: 34 GA: 35

Stoke City – GF: 37 GA: 33

However, if Barnsley were to collect all three points against Stoke midweek, they would go above the opposition while also having a game in hand on everyone around them.

The home side most recently beat Bristol City 1-0 away from home and after the result their head coach, Ismael, said:

“We have to keep going now. This is the Championship and, if you see the results, it’s really close and a tough league. Anyone can beat anyone and you can come in a bad run or a good run, but you have to stay focused on the next game.”

The Frenchman is trying his best to keep his team’s feet firmly on the ground and not to get to ahead of themselves.

Stoke will need to be wary of centre forward Cauley Woodrow. The Englishman has 13 goals and assists this season and is the only Barnsley player to be in double digits, Alex Mowatt is closely behind on nine G/A.

In this fixture earlier on in the season both sides took one point away after a 2-2 draw. Stoke will have been the happier of the two teams as they played out the last half an hour with ten men.

The last time these sides met at the Oakwell Stadium, Stoke walked away with all three points after an impressive 4-2 victory.

Just as Stoke fans were beginning to feel positive again, they were hit with some hard news towards the end of last week as the club announced that after 14 years, Ryan Shawcross has left the club.

After 14 years of outstanding service with Stoke City, we can confirm that Ryan Shawcross has left the Club.

Ryan and his family will always be welcome at the bet365 Stadium and he departs with the best wishes of everyone at the Club.#SCFC ?⚪️

— Stoke City FC (@stokecity) February 19, 2021

Barnsley will have their work cut out for them on Wednesday if they want to keep a second clean sheet in a row as midfielder Nick Powell has 12 G/A this season, with Tyrese Campbell just behind on 11 and Steven Fletcher makes it three players in double digits for goal contributions as he sits on 10 G/A.

After Stoke’s 3-0 win against Luton Town at the weekend, three of their players made the EFL Championship’s Team of the Week…

⭐️ Team of the Week ⭐️

Your stars of the weekend! Powered by @WhoScored ratings ?#EFL | #SkyBetChampionship pic.twitter.com/Gx2ozSEuUV

— Sky Bet Championship (@SkyBetChamp) February 21, 2021

Head to Head Record

Even when you look at the overall head to head record, nothing can split these two sides apart. They have met each other a total of 61 times in their history and both teams have been victorious on 22 occasions each while drawing the remaining 17.