FOR THE second time in just over two years, Barnsley arrived at Stevenage’s ground to find the referee was about to call their game off.

In late January 2024, it was a frozen section of the pitch which saw a 3pm Saturday kick-off postponed with less than two hours of notice.

This week, once again hundreds of Reds fans had arrived in Hertfordshire, only for the Tuesday evening game to be called off about 75 minutes before the scheduled kick-off time – this time due to a waterlogged pitch.

After talking to Barnsley head coach Conor Hourihane and Stevenage boss Alex Revell, referee Kirsty Dowle made the decision apparently due to the condition of the pitch in one of the penalty areas.

Although lower league football, with a wide disparity in the quality of the pitches, is always at the mercy of a heavy downpour or cold snap, there must surely be a better system to call games off sooner and prevent such frequent disruption for supporters.

The postponement gives Barnsley a temporary reprieve as they were midway through a schedule of nine games in 28 days.

Missing one will, in theory, make their legs slightly fresher for the crucial home matches with AFC Wimbledon on Saturday and Peterborough United on Tuesday.

But the trade-off is it will be rescheduled likely for one of the final two midweek slots in the season in late April – most probably either Tuesday the 21st or 28th.

They are two of just four free midweeks remaining this season for Barnsley with the others being the week after next – but the Reds want to keep that free – or during the international break in March.

The Reds have several international players.

Patrick Kelly is likely to be selected for Northern Ireland, at senior or under 21 level, Jono Bland and Vimal Yoganathan could be involved with Wales under 21s, Tawanda Chirewa is a regular with Zimbabwe and Owen Goodman was in the last Canada squad.

If three players are called up, then Barnsley could call their match on March 28 at Northampton Town off and put it and the Stevenage game in the final two midweek slots of the season.

That would mean that, from Good Friday when they visit Burton Albion, the Reds would play their final nine matches of the season in 29 days.

It would also leave them with no more free midweeks to rearrange another game if the weather was to claim one of the remaining fixtures.

In that scenario, they would either have to just play the Northampton game without their internationals or potentially play Saturday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday one week.

This stems back to an inability to rearrange at least one of the three games called off due to the autumn international breaks for before Christmas.

One of them has been played, the draw with Northampton last week, but the trip to Stevenage and a home match with Cardiff are yet to happen as are the Wycombe home game moved due to the Reds’ FA Cup run and a game at bottom club Port Vale which was called off last month.

Barnsley have a game in hand on Vale, at least two on everyone else and four on some teams.

They have played the fewest league games in the EFL and, after the midweek matches, only one less than the Premier League sides who play eight fewer throughout the season.

From the trip to Leyton Orient on the final day of February, they play seven times in 22 days including five home games.

After playing five out of six at Oakwell in 17 days in March, six of their final nine matches are due to be away from home – with four at sides in the current bottom six.

The Reds clearly need to get a couple of vital wins soon to take them close to that 50-point safety net and avoid them going into the frantic end of the season looking over their shoulder at the relegation scrap.