📏 Form Guide

Barnsley

WDLWLL

Barnsley will be hoping for a better result following the 2-1 League One defeat last time out to Stevenage.

The only player to score from Barnsley was Adam Phillips (30'). Jamie Reid (45') and Dan Butler (51') scored for Stevenage.

It’s been all too rare in recent games that Barnsley haven’t conceded. In fact, Barnsley have seen their defence breached in 5 of their previous 6 clashes, shipping 12 goals on the way. That kind of trend might not be sustained into this match, however.

Analysis of their past results shows that Barnsley:

• haven't lost in the league to Reading in their previous 2 matches.
• are without a home win in the past 4 matches in the league. That's never good.

Reading

LWWLDW

Reading will go into this game following a 0-2 League One win vs Bristol Rovers in their most recent outing.

For Reading, the scorers were Sam Smith (8') and Lewis Wing (45').

Proving their predisposition for eventful matches, the back of the net has been hit 20 times in the prior 6 matches in which Reading have taken to the pitch, giving an average of 3.33 goals each clash. Opposing teams have hit 10 of those goals.

Leading up to this clash, Reading:

• haven't won against Barnsley when having played them away from home in the previous 4 league matches. They'll be keen to stop this run.
• have not lost to Barnsley when they've played them away from home in the last 10 league games. It really has been a happy hunting ground for them.

↔️ Head to head

Inspecting their past head to head clashes going back to 29/02/2020 tells us that Barnsley have won 1 of them and Reading 3, with the number of drawn games standing at 2.

A combined sum of 13 goals were yielded between them throughout the course of those matches, with 5 for The Tykes and 8 belonging to The Royals. That’s an average goals per game figure of 2.17.

The last league game featuring the two was League One match day 21 on 09/12/2023 which ended up with the score at Reading 1-3 Barnsley.

The match was refereed by Ollie Yates.

🗞️ Team News: Barnsley

The Barnsley manager Neill Collins will be thankful to have no fitness worries to speak of before this match thanks to a fully injury-free squad available to choose from.

It seems likely that The Tykes look set to opt for a 4-4-2 formation for the game, handing starts to Arijanet Muric, Lorenz Assignon, Hjalmar Ekdal, Maxime Esteve, Charlie Taylor, Lyle Foster, Sander Berge, Josh Cullen, Jacob Bruun Larsen, Wilson Odobert and David Datro Fofana.

📰 Team News: Reading

Reading boss Rubén Sellés has to choose from a squad that has some fitness concerns. Sam Hutchinson (Knee injury) and Dom Ballard (Patellar tendon rupture) are those who can’t be considered.

From our viewpoint, The Royals will likely play in a 4-2-3-1 formation, settling for Bart Verbruggen, Joel Veltman, Jan Paul van Hecke, Lewis Dunk, Pervis Estupinan, Pascal Gross, Carlos Baleba, Facundo Buonanotte, Joao Pedro, Simon Adingra and Danny Welbeck.

💭 Prediction

We’ve got the feeling that Reading might have a difficult job to put one past this Barnsley side who we think will likely get the vital goal that wins it.

We therefore see a good tussle with a 1-0 win for Barnsley at the end of the 90.

Expecting it to be tight.

Our expert partners are tipping over 1.5 goals for this match. Check out their VIP predictions here.

Andre Moura, 13:01 13/04/2024