DERBY COUNTY PREVIEW

8 March 2021

We are back on home soil this Wednesday evening as the Reds welcome the Rams to Oakwell in the Sky Bet Championship.

After creating history last time out, Valérien Ismaël and his Barnsley side will be looking to extend their record-breaking run when they take on Wayne Rooney's Derby County on Wednesday 10 March in a 7pm kick-off here at Oakwell.

Bouyed by that latest success at the weekend against Birmingham City, where Daryl Dike's goal from the Gods sealed a seventh straight league victory, the Reds face another side struggling at the wrong end of the Sky Bet Championship.

The Rams will arrive on Grove Street in this rearranged clash following last month's rain-induced postponement hoping to put an end to Barnsley's outstanding form.

It has been a quite extraordinary sequence of results for the Reds under Ismaël since exiting the Emirates FA Cup at the fifth round stage against Chelsea. Away wins at Brentford, Bristol City and QPR have been backed up by home triumphs against Blackburn Rovers, Stoke City, Millwall and Birmingham City.

Staggering form that has lifted Barnsley up into sixth position in the Sky Bet Championship standings, occupying a playoff spot at this stage of the season at this level for the first time in 21 years.

The Reds are a point ahead of Bournemouth - who they meet at the Vitality Stadium on Saturday - so Wednesday night's clash with Derby is a real opportunity to extend that precious gap in this breathtaking campaign.

This is not, however, the Derby County that Barnsley brushed aside earlier in the season. Since December of last year and the appointment of England legend Rooney, the Rams have improved their fortunes dramatically, although recent results have dragged them back into the fight for second tier survival.

Finding the back of the net has been the Rams' issue this season. Only Wycombe Wanderers and Sheffield Wednesday (the bottom two) have scored less than Derby's 25 goals. And only nine of those have been from open play, the worst record in the division.

But the Rams have beaten Norwich City, Bournemouth and Swansea City this term, so they are no mugs. But when they were tipped as a promotion favourite last summer, they wouldn't have envisaged sitting 19th in March.

The loss of Krystian Bielik has proven a pivotal blow recently, with the classy midfielder's ability to bring things together from a central base key to their revival around Christmas and the New Year.

But the winter arrival of former Sheffield United forward Colin Kazim-Richards has been inspired, with the Turkish international scoring seven times already.

Club News

WATCH THE REDS AGAINST DERBY

8 March 2021

It was Barnsley's first away victory of the season when beating Derby 2-0 at Pride Park in November of last year. Goals from Conor Chaplin and Victor Adeboyejo sealed an impressive three points.

We'll have live coverage of Wednesday night's clash with the Rams on iFollow Barnsley with Matt Bailey joined on the mic by Wayne Goodison and Callum Cooper.

Subscribe to watch

MATCHDAY RECAP: DERBY COUNTY (A) w/music

Our bitesized review of the Reds' trip to Pride Park - with an instrumental backing track.

Match Reports

REDS UNBEATEN IN TEN FOLLOWING RAMS DRAW

10 March 2021

Barnsley stretched their unbeaten league run to ten games following a 0-0 draw with Derby County at Oakwell on Wednesday evening.

In a match of very few chances, it was the visitors who came the closest from Graeme Shinnie’s second half effort that smacked the upright.

The game’s first real opening came just after the half hour mark when Callum Brittain’s near post cross was met by Daryl Dike, but the American was unable to divert his header on target as both sides struggled to carve out opportunities.

Barnsley tried their luck from the opposite flank, this time Callum Styles floated a ball in that was again met by Dike who planted his header straight at Kelle Roos.

Other than that, a rather forgettable first half was drawn to a close with neither team having laid a glove on one another.

HALF-TIME: Barnsley 0-0 Derby County

The Reds began the second half with a greater intensity and had a chance within moments of the restart when Conor Chaplin prodded Alex Mowatt’s low cross towards goal that was saved by Roos.

After Derby only half-cleared the resulting corner, Brittain took aim with a fierce drive that was eventually blocked and hacked away by the visiting defence.

The visitors had their first real attempt in anger shortly after as Shinnie jinked inside and fired an effort that Brad Collins gathered comfortably.

When Colin Kazim-Richards broke the offside trap, Collins had to be at his best to thwart Lee Gregory from 12-yards after he had been picked out by a square ball.

Derby were in the ascendency and came agonisingly close to taking the lead when Shinnie curled a wonderful effort from distance that Collins tipped onto the post and the ball trickled back across the goalline and out for a corner.

Barnsley searched for an elusive winner, but it never came as both sides settled for a point with sees the Reds stay sixth in the Sky Bet Championship.

FULL-TIME: Barnsley 0-0 Derby County

Collins, Sibbick, Helik, Andersen, Brittain, Palmer (Kane), Mowatt, Styles (J Williams), Chaplin (Morris), Dike, Woodrow (Adeboyejo).

Unused: Walton, Sollbauer, Moon, Oduor, Frieser.