BARNSLEY will look to achieve back-to-back wins for the first time this season when they host fellow strugglers Hull City from 3pm tomorrow.
The Reds are third-bottom in the table, a point from safety, after beating bottom club Derby County 2-1 on Wednesday, and now host City who are second- bottom.
Hull began the season with a 4-1 success at Preston North End but have won just one of their 16 games since, including five successive defeats.
They played two sides who are in the top four this week as they lost 1-0 at home to Coventry City then at West Bromwich Albion on Wednesday by the same scoreline.
They are the lowest scorers in the EFL with nine in 16 games, with just one in their last six.
Since netting four at Deepdale on the opening day, they have not scored in seven away games which have brought just one point.
They are the lowest away scorers in the Championship.
Caretaker Joseph Lauman said: “It’s a home game. We will take confidence from the Derby game.
“There was good stuff and stuff we need to do better.
“Hull are a good team.
“They are on a hard run but in this league everyone can beat everyone so we have to prepare well.
“The Derby game was massive, Hull is also massive.
“We need points.”
Hull are managed by Grant McCann who played 44 games for the Reds in 2007 and 2008.
Since becoming a manager, he has drawn twice against Barnsley with Doncaster Rovers then lost twice against them with Hull.
The Northern Irishman took the Tigers to the brink of the play-offs places at the start of last year but they lost 17 of their last 21 matches and were relegated with Barnsley surviving on the final day having been 18 points below the Tigers on New Year’s Day.
They then bounced straight back by winning League One last season.
Their top-scorer in that campaign was ex-Red Mallik Wilks, with 19 goals.
The forward had a difficult 16-game spell at Oakwell in 2019, having signed from Leeds following an impressive loan at Doncaster Rovers under McCann.
He was sidelined by Gerhard Struber then moved to Hull, first on loan in January then permanently.
He has played 12 Championship games this season, scoring once.
He was dropped to the bench on Saturday then started in midweek.
Another ex-Red at Hull is George Moncur, who played 78 games for Barnsley, scoring nine goals, from 2016 to 2019.
The attacking midfielder struggled to start consistently before moving to Luton Town then returning to Yorkshire this summer.
He has been in and out of Hull’s 11 and is yet to score. He started on Saturday but was not in the squad in midweek.
Moncur’s former Barnsley team-mate Callum Elder joins him at Hull and is a regular starter at left-back.
The Australian played five games on loan from Leicester City in 2017 and has been at Hull since the summer of 2019.
The clubs have met 106 times, with the Reds winning 42 and losing 40.
Barnsley have lost just one of the last six meetings, winning four.
City’s last visit to Oakwell was a 3-1 loss in November 2019, with Barnsley ending a 17-match winless run.
Barnsley also won 1-0 at Hull in February of last year, with Cauley Woodrow getting the only goal.
Hull’s last win in the fixture was at Oakwell in October 2017 when Fraizer Campbell netted a late winner.
That was their only win in their last five trips to Oakwell since 2008.
Meanwhile, Hull ’s under 18s and under 23s are due to play at Oakwell over the coming days, as well as the first team tomorrow.
The under 18s play today from 11am and the under 23s on Monday at 1pm on the first team pitch.
The under 23s lost 3-1 at home to Coventry City on Tuesday.
The visitors were 2-0 up at half-time then, after David Bremang pulled one back, home captain Joe Ackroyd was sent off and the Sky Blues netted again with the last kick.