Walsall are off on their travels tomorrow to South Yorkshire and never has an away win been more needed to boost a team’s confidence. Walsall’s current form is almost as bad as it could be, following the home defeat by Oldham on Saturday and the gap between us and the relegation positions is down to six points. At least Oldham (at home to Hull), Franchise (away at Bournemouth) and Torquay (home to Luton) all have hard fixtures!

Paul Merson has no new injury worries as he ponders his tactics and team line up. In fact, the squad should be strengthened by the return of Emblen from the slight niggle that kept him out on Saturday and Murphy following his suspension.
Merson’s main problem seems to be which formation and tactics to play. Will he flood the midfield or go 4 3 1 2? Will he play himself or not? Who knows!

Barnsley, under Caretaker Manager Andy Ritchie, have had an extra day to recover from the exertions of the weekend, in their case a 3 – 1 away win at Luton on Friday. Full back Tom Williams will be missing, but they have no other real injury worries, with defenders Paul Reid and Neil Austin available again.

Barnsley’s main dangers should be former Walsall loanee Chris Shuker and the very, very dangerous Michael Chopra.

Barnsley are currently 12th in the Division and are now a massive eight points behind the play off places, so should have little to play for, other than pride. Their win at Luton last week, however, shows how dangerous a relaxed team can be. They are relaxed, while Walsall’s nerve ends must be jangling.

Barnsley’s home record is:-

Played 19, Won 6, Drawn 8, Lost 5, Points 26

So they aren’t the greatest on their own patch (their away record is the reason they are higher than us in the table, as they have the same number of points away from Oakwell), so this ought to be seen as a game we should get a point from, if not a win. I gave up predicting those a few games ago away from home, though, so I have to say 2 – 1 to Barnsley. Unless he goes 4 5 1, perhaps? 3 4 1 2? Any other offers?