BARNSLEY will look to end a four-game winless run at home when they host high-flying fellow Yorkshire club Bradford City in a 12.30pm kick-off on Saturday.
The Bantams are looking for a second successive promotion and are fourth in League One, 11 points off second-placed Cardiff and eight clear in the top six with four games to play.
They lost 1-0 at home to fellow top six side Stevenage on Saturday but victory at Oakwell could secure a place in the play-offs depending on other results.
While they have the second-best home record in the division, Bradford have collected less than half as many points on the road and have lost seven of their last nine away games.
But they did win 2-1 at Wycombe in their last away game and are expected to be backed by more than 5,000 away fans at Oakwell.
Hourihane told the Chronicle: “They are a really energetic, really front foot, high-pressing team with options at the top end of the pitch that, from one week to another, can look a little bit different.
“They’ve done fantastically well and they are defensively really solid as well.”
When officials at Barnsley have cited their mid-table budget as a reason for not competing for the top six, newly-promoted Bradford are one of the sides pointed to as an overachiever.
Hourihane said: “I think it’s not for me to say on budgets whether Bradford’s is more or not than us, but the squad depth that they have is obviously very positive for them.
“They can have a frontline change pretty much in all games.”
Hourihane says Bradford’s home attendances – the second highest in the league with an average of more than 20,000 – are something he would love to get close to at Oakwell.
“The biggest thing I would probably say that I would have loved to have created that Bradford have is the home atmosphere/connection.
“I think they’ve really got it going there and they have big crowds.
“Those numbers are something that I have seen (at Barnsley) but maybe when we were in the Championship or maybe in the play-offs in League One.
“I understand that we’re going to find it difficult to find those numbers right now.
“We haven’t quite been able to reach that but hopefully we can start over the last two home positive performances and then into next season as well.”
He added: “I think our home form has been OK over the course of the season.
“Definitely a little bit of an improvement. Obviously, the last couple of home games, not so much in terms of Plymouth and Doncaster.
“But I would like to end the season with a positive home result from the last two games.”
Barnsley are winless in four at Oakwell, drawing with Cardiff and Wigan then losing at home to Doncaster and Plymouth without scoring.
This will be Bradford’s first game at Oakwell since January 2019 when they lost 3-0. They have not won at Barnsley in eight visits since 1999, drawing five and losing three.
The reverse fixture in October is remembered for Reyes Cleary’s 70-yard goal. That was one of two Barnsley levellers in a 2-2 draw, with Patrick Kelly netting the other.
Bradford have forward Stephen Humphrys who was at Barnsley last season – then scored against them in October – and Kayden Jackson, who was at Oakwell in the 2016/17 season with Hourihane but never played.
Barnsley’s Jack Shepherd spent last season on loan to Bradford while Scott Banks spent the 2022/23 campaign on loan there.
