A view from the opposition ahead of Barnsley v Oxford United

Saturday sees Barnsley host Oxford United in the Sky Bet League One fixture at Oakwell.

Oakwell has become a fortress of late for the reds who have won the last 8 games at home in a row. With automatic promotion still a possibility for Michael Duff`s side, he will want his side to make that run increase to 9 in a row.

Oxford roll into South Yorkshire without a win in sixteen games but new manager Liam Manning has steadied the ship of late and nothing should be taken for granted by the Tykes.

We asked Oxford fan Jack Shoemark his thoughts ahead of the game on Saturday.

With the excitement around the top of League One, both for the auto spots and in the play-off race, you can be forgiven for not noticing Oxford United’s painfully slow sinking towards League Two. Somehow, despite not winning for 16 (Sixteen!) games, we still sit outside the relegation zone though there is signs of life in some of those sides currently occupying the slots below the dotted line.

Liam Manning took over from Karl Robinson and has now been in charge for 6 games, overseeing 5 draws and a defeat. Manning has steadied the ship somewhat with some tactical tweaks to structure and shape, making us hard to beat in the first instance, something that was completely missing towards the end of the Robinson regime. The most concerning aspect, regardless of how hard we now are to beat, we don’t score goals so we are better described as “hard to be beaten by”.

In this 16 game run without a win, we have scored a total of 8 goals, (2 of those in one game against Derby). Concerningly, just 2 of these have been from open play, with a Cam Brannagan penalty and free-kick plus 3 headers from set plays spread between Sam Long and Elliott Moore.

It does feel like a win and goals aren’t too far away (and it needs to be soon!), our last two games have seen us have 45 shots, with just the single Long headed goal to show for it.

Teenage striker Gatlin O’Donkor missed two huge chances against Portsmouth on Tuesday and on another day, we’d have come out with 3 points. It was certainly the best performance for the full 90minutes since Manning took over. All that being said, a trip to Oakwell is never easy and even less so given your current league position, whilst 4th place looks pretty certain, I’m sure Michael Duff won’t be giving up on the automatic slots until mathematically impossible and you’re not just going to roll over on Saturday.

It does feel like a real tough ask and pretty unlikely that we’ll come away with a positive result, but recent performances in draws v Peterborough and Sheff Weds have shown that we can compete in games against the clubs at the top end of the table.

It will be interesting to see the approach from us on Saturday with our game in hand coming up on Tuesday against Cheltenham, one that must have been pencilled in for a real go for that elusive victory. Football is a funny old game, and that gives me some hope that the seemingly impossible is possible on Saturday!