BARNSLEY will look to continue their good recent home form when they host relegation-battling Mansfield in their Boxing Day game on Friday from 3pm.
The Stags are 21st in League One, in the relegation zone on goal difference after Exeter City leaped above them by beating the Reds on Saturday.
The Stags have taken a point from their last six games, leaving them bottom of the form table.
They had lost four successive league games before drawing 0-0 at AFC Wimbledon last week then went down 2-1 at home to high-flying Stockport County on Saturday.
Their only goal in their last four games was an own goal.
Barnsley have not won three consecutive home league games since the nine successive victories at Oakwell under Michael Duff in early 2023.
Their last two home games were a 5-0 beating of Luton Town in November and the 3-2 win against Leyton Orient last week. If they defeat the Stags, Barnsley will equal the six home league wins they recorded last season with 14 games to play at Oakwell.
Hourihane said: “Every game can be tough regardless of form.
“Look at Exeter, it’s a quick reminder you have to be bang at it all the time to get the results you want.
“We have been decent over the last period at home.
“We made a big thing about that this season. We seem to be in a good place at home and hopefully that continues over the next couple of days.”
He added: “Mansfield make it really difficult for you. They had a close encounter with Stockport.
“They gave it everything and they were close to getting a result.
“We have to be ready for it.”
Mansfield were the first side Hourihane faced as a manager when, having replaced the sacked Darrell Clarke three days earlier, Barnsley lost 2-1 at Field Mill in March.
Hourihane said: “We’re nearly ten months into it. It’s been incredible.
“At Mansfield I didn’t know I would get the role permanently. It was a frantic few days. We came out on the wrong side of it that day and hopefully now, with a bit more preparation, we go into this one ready to go.”
Mansfield’s veteran manager Nigel Clough has come up against Barnsley 20 times, starting in 2009. He has won six, drawn ten and lost four and is unbeaten in five with four wins while manager of Burton then Mansfield.
Reds top-scorer Davis Keillor-Dunn fired Mansfield to promotion last year then joined Barnsley, having played for the Stags at Oakwell last season.
Mansfield have several ex-Reds.
Goalkeeper Liam Roberts, who spent the 2023/24 season at Oakwell, has played every game in the league since signing for the Stags last summer.
He could play at Oakwell for the first time since conceding a penalty and a goal directly from a corner in the play-off semi-final loss to Bolton.
Former Reds academy graduates Rhys Oates and George Maris are suspended and injured respectively.
Mansfield midfielder Louis Reed is from Penistone.
The Stags did the double over Barnsley last season.
They won 2-1 on the opening day at Oakwell with two early goals before Luca Connell replied.
The scoreline was repeated in March in Hourihane’s first game after replacing Darrell Clarke.
Current Reds player Caylan Vickers got one of Mansfield’s goals, with Josh Benson on target for Barnsley.
The clubs have met 37 times with Barnsley winning 14 and losing 12.
The Stags have only visited Oakwell twice since 1980, winning in both 2002 and last year.
