The stats suggest that we've been overdue a result like the one on Saturday for a while, hopefully we've now got that out of our system. What better tonic then, than an away game against bottom of the league. Carlisle are now 9 a drift at the bottom and 16 short of safety, taking just 3 points since we last faced them in January. The bookies have us as 8/11 favourites to bounce back, and extend our away winning streak to 3,and unbeaten run on the road to 10. The hosts are currently priced at 4/1 to win just their second game in 12. Carlisle have both the worst home and away record in the division. At Brunton Park this season, they've taken just 14 points and scored 15 goals in 18 games. They've lost each of their last 5 at home, though have faced Oxford, Bolton and Portsmouth in that time. They did have a little flurry of good results at home at the back end of last year, garnering 2 wins, 2 draws and 2 defeats between the end of October and New Years day. They also took points off Peterborough earlier on in the season. The highest placed team they have beaten at home is 17th placed Shrewsbury, courtesy of an own goal and a 96th minute clincher whilst the Shrews were pushing for an equaliser. This is our first visit to Carlisle in almost 40 years, where just 2,400 people saw us play out a 1-1 draw with The Cumbrians; I haven't been able to locate the scorers online for that one as most "archives" online tend to only go back as far as the mid 90s, though I have found the cover of the programme. We haven't won there in our last 8 visits (3 draws and 5 defeats) stretching back to 1954, when we won 4-2 there twice in the same calendar year. In fact, 3 of our 4 victories at Carlisle have seen us score 4 goals, though our overall record there reads won 4, drawn 3 and lost 6. Jordan Gibson is Carlisle's top scorer, with 7 league goals; 4 of these have come in their 2 games against Bolton. He's surpassed his best goal return in English football already, having only netted twice in their league 2 promotion campaign last year. Their second top scorer, Joe Garner with 4 goals, now leads the line for Oldham. Luke Armstrong who was a handful at Oakwell, netted his second Carlisle goal at Charlton on the weekend, having got his first in the reverse fixture at Oakwell. Referee Edward Duckworth has issued 120 yellows and 6 reds in 26 games this season, which is just shy of 5 cards per game, including a red card for Jordan Rhodes at the weekend. He has a tendency to issue a high number of cards in a game every so often, which suggests he sometimes struggles to keep control. He booked 10 and sent 1 off in a goalless draw between Cambridge and Burton recently. He took charge of Carlisle's 1-0 home defeat to Leyton Orient in October, booking just 3 Orient players in that one. This is his first Barnsley appointment, as he was promoted from the National League in the summer. Whilst I'm not expecting a classic, I fancy the reds to bounce back in this one. I'm predicting a low scoring, drab affair where, for once, we keep the opposition at arms length for 90 minutes. I'm going for 0-1 with Phillips getting the goal midway through the first half.
To completely get Saturday out of the system I want a clean sheet and a very comfortable away win. 0-4 will do it; otherwise Neil, you can stay up there for the week….
I try and be glass half full (although admittedly I often don’t succeed!) but I’m worried about this one. If we were’tired’ on Saturday surely following up on a Tuesday will make things worse? No idea if that’s just an excuse by Collins, as let’s face it, our schedule hasn’t been too torturous by EFL standards thanks to not having a cup run. But taking him at his word I’m going for a frustrating 1-1 draw.
Should be confident but after Saturday I just can’t be. No Kane to drive us on from midfield either. We all know what Russell offers in his place and Grant looks more of an attacking player than a workhorse. Be a tougher game than it ought to be.
3-0 Russell og O'Keefe og Roberts og. 60 yard Marsh backpass hits bar before rebounding off Roberts nose and flying in Roberts out for season with broken nose, 2 black eyes and a thick lip. Doom, doom, doom..
I'm still trying to flush Saturday's horror-show out of my system. Can't see beyond a draw against a side that have nothing much to lose at this stage and will give it a right go. 1-1
We'll win, we'll win by 5,travelling over from Brid t'morra morning, cu all t'morra, keep the faith, C,O,Y,R,
A lot of Blackpool fans complained about Mr E. Duckworth after Saturdays match v Portsmouth. I hope he's on better form tonight. I'll go 3-0 Reds if our spine of Connell, Cole and Roberts are on form. Can't afford anymore slip ups