news Reds News Christmas crunch time By Paul Thompson BARNSLEY caretaker manager Simon Davey believes that tomorrow's match at QPR can help to kick-start the club's bid to rise away from the Championship relegation zone. Rangers are one point and one place better off than the fourth-from-bottom Reds. So Barnsley would overtake their opponents if they win and give themselves a significant Christmas boost. But Davey does not expect QPR's run of five consecutive defeats to make life easy for the Reds. "Although they're going through a bad patch they're at home and it's a difficult place to go to.," he said. "It's a big game; they're just above us in the league; both teams are fighting to get away from that relegation zone. It's going to be a tough game for us." He added that this busy holiday period can shape a club's season and throw up some surprise results, with games coming thick and fast. "Teams can pick up or drop points when you don't expect it. It's important to pick up points at this time of year," he said. Paul Reid has been virtually ruled out because of his ankle injury. Davey hopes that Bobby Hassell will have shaken off a flu-type illness and that the bug will not makes further inroads into his squad. "It's been going through the club; we have had quite a few suffering from it, and some of the staff. Hopefully it won't affect us for tomorrow's game," he said. n Meanwhile, Wednesday and manager Brian Laws face the biggest test of his reign so far during the Christmas and New Year period. Four matches in 10 days - starting tomorrow with the visit of promotion-chasing Southampton - will also be used as a yardstick by him to gauge how well the club are progressing. "You can put yourselves into a strong position at this time of year with 12 points available in such a short space of time; it can change your season dramatically," he said. "This is the biggest test since I've been here, and the biggest test of our resurgence up the league; we can carry it on, or it can fall apart. "Let's hope our good form continues and we give ourselves something to look forward to in the second half of the season
