BARNSLEY will look to avoid losing to League One bottom club Port Vale for a third time this season on Sunday from 3pm.

The match is currently scheduled to go ahead but temperatures are expected to be low and snow has been forecast for around the kick-off time.

The Reds are 16th in League One, two points clear of the relegation zone and winless in four.

Vale sacked former Reds defender Darren Moore last weekend after an 11-game winless run in the league since winning at Oakwell in September.

Assistant manager Martin Devaney – who left Barnsley after 18 years as a player and coach in April following a backroom staff reshuffle under Conor Hourihane - is thought to be supporting caretaker boss Jamie Smith.

Vale are nine points adrift of safety.

They ended a 12-game winless run with a remarkable 5-1 beating of Blackpool on New Year’s Day, with the visitors having a man sent off on the stroke of half-time when 1-0 up.

Before that, they had only scored in one of their last ten league games and had netted just 13 all season.

The two teams have already met twice this season. The game before Vale’s long winless run was a 2-0 win at Oakwell in September.

They then thrashed a strong Reds side 5-0 in the EFL Trophy last month.

Their top-scorer Devante Cole netted 43 goals in 152 games across two spells with Barnsley. He has eight goals in all competitions this season.

Vale also signed goalkeeper Joe Gauci who spent the second half of last season at Oakwell but he had been dropped to the bench in recent weeks.

This will be Barnsley’s 122nd meeting with Vale, their most familiar opponents.

They have won their last three league games at the Staffordshire club - a 1-0 success in 2016 thanks to a Conor Hourihane free-kick then victories in 2023 on Valentine’s Day and Boxing Day.