Despite all the excitement of the world cup, there is proper football ongoing. I say proper football, this is the least proper proper football competition to be honest. Port Vale won 3 from 3 in the group stage. Scoring 7 without reply. They've fielded reasonably strong sides in all 3 fixtures, with only a couple irregulars in their starting line-up. At home, they've been consistently inconsistent this season, not stringing the same result together in 2 consecutive games when considering all competitions. As their last home fixture was a 1-0 win over Charlton, that stands us in good stead. We were victorious on our last visit to Vale Park, back in 2016, which was our first victory there in 8 visits, stretching back to 1996, a game memorable for John Hendrie's first Barnsley goal. I think we need to match the strength of their lineup if we're going to get a result. I'm going for 0-1 with Phillips continuing his gold scoring form.
That's why the he world cup feels weird, more important football is still taking place. I'm going 2 1 to us!
2-1 to us to take us closer to another Wembley day out. I know many on here, and elsewhere, say this competition doesn't matter so how come 25,000+ will more than likely be heading for Oakwell South should we get there? It matters to me. ANY Barnsley fixture matters to me, as it should to every supporter of the club. On the subject of the World Cup, I'm interested. Watching England last night was much more enjoyable than usual and I even took an interest in Wales as soon as Keiffer came on. Looking forward to this weeks fixtures with Germany, Spain, France et al starting their campaigns. I will more than likely record the matches as usual so that I have the option of hitting the FF button every time a player gets hit by sniper fire, only to spring to their feet within a couple of minutes.
I suspect we will play a understrength side like we did in the group games and Port Vale take team strength more seriously. I think we will lose 2-1.
I think now Duff has regained the formula that works in the League he'll pick a fringe 11 and hopefully Benson will find form again. I'd like to progress but as long as we keep winning league games I'm not too fussed. I'll go for a win and hope we don't pick up anymore injuries.
Hard to forecast with not really knowing what sort of team we’ll field. 2-1 Port Vale, probably, possibly, maybe