BARNSLEY’S pre-season schedule is due to start on Tuesday.

The friendly season is always a bizarre time of year, with the Reds visiting tiny non-league grounds usually in very hot conditions as they look to get their usually half-finished squad fit and, if possible, work on some tactics.

The team, especially in the first few games, is usually a weird mishmash of youngsters filling gaps, players who look destined to move away, returning loanees many fans forgot about and maybe the odd trialist who is often never seen again.

There is of course an anxiety over who is involved in the games or not and whether their absence means they are about to be sold.

It will be no different this time as a summer of change is expected, despite the sleepy start to the transfer window until this week.

There could still be some behind-closed-doors friendlies added against higher teams.

Here is a look at the friendlies that have been announced so far:

EMLEY AWAY, TUESDAY

The pre-season schedule starts with a short trip just across the border into West Yorkshire to visit the Pewits for a 7pm kick-off.

Emley are due to face Huddersfield Town on Saturday before welcoming the Reds, with both League One clubs likely to bring plenty of fans to the 2,000-capacity Fantastic Welfare Ground.

Emley – who have former Barnsley defender Jack Cowgill – knocked the Reds under 21s out of the Sheffield Senior Cup in January.

The original Emley folded in the early 2000s, having been a top non-league side in the 1990s under Reds legend Ronnie Glavin who took them to the third round of the FA Cup at West Ham United. A new club was formed and were at the same level as Worsbrough Bridge for a decade but got out of the Northern Counties East League with promotions in 2021 and 2024 then lost out in the Northern Premier League play-offs in April.

WORKSOP TOWN, AWAY, JULY 5

The Reds have often started their season at Sandy Lane in recent years.

It was Michael Duff’s first game in charge in 2022 then, a year later, Martin Devaney took charge as Neill Collins was saying goodbye to Tampa Bay Rowdies fans.

Worksop’s manager Craig Parry is from Darfield and is a Barnsley fan, having spent 13 years at the club as a youngster.

In their squad last season was Dan Bramall who spent the 2020/21 season at Barnsley and starred for the under 21s but never made a first team appearance.

Worksop were in the ninth tier NCEL Premier Division in 2019, pipping Penistone Church to the title, then gained further promotions in 2023 and this year to reach the National League North for the second time in their history after a three-year spell between 2004 and 2007.

BUXTON, AWAY, JULY 8

The Reds were due to play Alfreton Town on this date but it has been changed to a trip to a different East Midlands club from the National League North.

Buxton finished much higher than Alfreton last season, losing out in the play-offs.

Connor Kirkby, from Worsbrough, is the Buxton captain.

It will be the third game in a week.

HARROGATE TOWN, AWAY, JULY 19

This match is the only time in pre-season Barnsley fans can watch their team play against EFL opposition.

Simon Weaver is the longest serving manager in English professional football, having been in charge since May 2009 – in which time Barnsley have had 17 different bosses.

Weaver, whose father Irving took over as club chairman in 2011, has taken them from the National League North to League Two, in which they have finished in the bottom half in the last five seasons.

Wetherby Road is now called, for sponsorship reasons, Exercise Stadium which almost perfectly sums up a pre-season fixture in which fitness, minutes in the legs and sharpness are far more important than the result.

The Reds played there in a friendly in 2022 and lost 2-1 with a very young side – Jasper Moon getting the goal before spending last season as a Harrogate player.

YORK CITY, AWAY, JULY 22

This will be the Reds’ first trip to the York Community Stadium which opened in 2021, and was christened with promotion from the National League North in their first year there.

The Minstermen almost ended a nine-year wait for EFL football this summer as they finished second in the National League on 96 points then lost 3-0 in the play-offs at home to Oldham Athletic who had finished 23 points behind them.

Barnsley loanee Vimal Yoganathan was one of Oldham’s heroes that day with a goal and an assist. The Reds won 7-1 at York’s old ground in their last friendly meeting in 2018.

York recently signed Ollie Banks, son of Reds legend Ian.

The stadium is also used by York’s rugby league club who moved there under the chairmanship of Jon Flatman who is now the chief executive at Barnsley FC.