Barnsley U23s travel to Hull City on Monday evening looking to record back-to-back wins over the Tigers.
The young Reds ran out 1-0 winners over Jon Beale’s side last Friday and have lost just once in their last six outings, keeping three clean sheets in the process.
Martin Devaney will be boosted by the return of Matty Wolfe, who is expected to feature for 45 minutes at the Roy West Centre as he continues his recovery from a lengthy injury lay-off.
It will be the first time that the promising midfielder has featured for any Reds’ side in over a year following a recurrence of a stress fracture in his back, and the academy product is raring to take to the field once again.
“I can’t wait; it’s been just over a year now, which is obviously a long time,” said Wolfe. “I can’t wait to get back out there and do what I love doing in the games.
“I was back and forth, in and out all the time, and it just kept coming back. It was quite worrying because I spent a lot of time wondering whether it would ever heal fully, but it has and its credit to the medical staff. Now I just want to get back out there on Monday and do my thing.
“It’s very mentally challenging because you’re getting up every day and you’re not training, you’re not looking forward to games and you’re just doing the same thing. I think it’s really helped me, mentally, in terms of how strong I am; I feel like I can take on anything and nothing really fazes me.”
Wolfe has been a regular attendee at the U23s home fixtures this season and has been impressed with what he has seen from his teammates in recent weeks.
The young Reds have claimed two successive victories at the Oakwell Training Complex – including the hard-fought win against high-flying Burnley a fortnight ago.
Confidence is high on the pitch, and Wolfe is looking forward to getting involved in the action once more and helping the U23s climb the Professional Development League table.
“I think, recently, they’ve been doing really well – they’ve won their last two games and look really strong,” continued the 18-year-old, who recently put pen to paper on a new deal at Oakwell. “They’re pressing high and implementing what the first team have been doing; they look really good and I can’t wait to get involved with them.
“I watched the game last week and I thought we had a lot more than what Hull had in terms of quality – both technically and tactically. So hopefully we can go and do the same and get another result.”
You can find out how our U23s fare by attending the game at the Roy West Centre, kick-off at 7pm. Alternatively, you can follow updates via our official Academy Twitter account: @AcademyBFC.
Tickets for this clash are priced as follows:
Adults - £4
Concessions - £2
Roy West Centre
East Riding County Football Association Ltd
220 Inglemire Lane
Hull
HU6 7TS
