Swansea City v Barnsley
Competition - Sky Bet Championship
Venue - Swansea.com Stadium
Date - 15 April 2022
Kick off - 3:00pm
Following a run of 3 successive victories against Cardiff, Millwall and finally ‘Wayne Rooney’s Derby County’, next up for Russell Martin’s Swansea squad is a home match against relegation threatened Barnsley.
Last Saturday, two Joel Piroe goals inspired the Swans to victory against a Derby side fighting for Championship survival.
The Dutch forward struck twice in quick succession in the first half with two stylish first-time finishes.
Tom Lawrence's penalty brought Derby back into the contest soon after but Swansea had the better of the second half with Hannes Wolf hitting the bar.
Arguably, the principal talking point was the standard of officiating with referee Tim Robinson at the centre - the Swans were denied a penalty for handball, and then Robinson - in my opinion - bottled out giving a free kick when Paterson was taken out by the goalie as the ref knew he would have had to show a red card.
Additionally, Derby felt that they should have been awarded a penalty right at the end, with Rooney berating and ranting at the Fourth Official.
Hardly unsurprisingly, Rooney focussed on this in his after match comments - yet failed to mention either Swansea incident!
Anyway, an eighth successive away defeat kept Derby 23rd in the Championship and nine points adrift of safety.
Swansea's fourth win from five, meanwhile, moved them up to 14th in the table.
Whilst the Swans were beating the Rams, Millwall were thrashing Barnsley 4-1 to improve their chances of grabbing a Championship play-off spot and adding to the Tykes' relegation fears in the process.
Wing-back Danny McNamara scored a brace which began with a first-half tap-in, before he headed home after the break.
Barnsley stayed in the game when Romal Palmer smashed the ball in, but clinical finishes from Oliver Burke and Benik Afobe sealed the three points.
The Tykes are now eight points adrift of safety with six games to go, while Millwall are four points off the play-off places with five matches remaining.
The Swans have played the Tykes on 79 previous occasions, winning 39, losing 24 and drawing 16.
In the corresponding (regular season) fixture last season, the Swans ran out comfortable 2-0 winners thanks to an early Jamal Lowe goal and a second half own-goal:
How bad did the pitch look
Turning to Friday, current form would suggest a ‘routine’ home win, but with Barnsley battling to escape the drop, it could be closer than expected.
That said, I think that the Swans will run out 3-1 winners
Competition - Sky Bet Championship
Venue - Swansea.com Stadium
Date - 15 April 2022
Kick off - 3:00pm
Following a run of 3 successive victories against Cardiff, Millwall and finally ‘Wayne Rooney’s Derby County’, next up for Russell Martin’s Swansea squad is a home match against relegation threatened Barnsley.
Last Saturday, two Joel Piroe goals inspired the Swans to victory against a Derby side fighting for Championship survival.
The Dutch forward struck twice in quick succession in the first half with two stylish first-time finishes.
Tom Lawrence's penalty brought Derby back into the contest soon after but Swansea had the better of the second half with Hannes Wolf hitting the bar.
Arguably, the principal talking point was the standard of officiating with referee Tim Robinson at the centre - the Swans were denied a penalty for handball, and then Robinson - in my opinion - bottled out giving a free kick when Paterson was taken out by the goalie as the ref knew he would have had to show a red card.
Additionally, Derby felt that they should have been awarded a penalty right at the end, with Rooney berating and ranting at the Fourth Official.
Hardly unsurprisingly, Rooney focussed on this in his after match comments - yet failed to mention either Swansea incident!
Anyway, an eighth successive away defeat kept Derby 23rd in the Championship and nine points adrift of safety.
Swansea's fourth win from five, meanwhile, moved them up to 14th in the table.
Whilst the Swans were beating the Rams, Millwall were thrashing Barnsley 4-1 to improve their chances of grabbing a Championship play-off spot and adding to the Tykes' relegation fears in the process.
Wing-back Danny McNamara scored a brace which began with a first-half tap-in, before he headed home after the break.
Barnsley stayed in the game when Romal Palmer smashed the ball in, but clinical finishes from Oliver Burke and Benik Afobe sealed the three points.
The Tykes are now eight points adrift of safety with six games to go, while Millwall are four points off the play-off places with five matches remaining.
The Swans have played the Tykes on 79 previous occasions, winning 39, losing 24 and drawing 16.
In the corresponding (regular season) fixture last season, the Swans ran out comfortable 2-0 winners thanks to an early Jamal Lowe goal and a second half own-goal:
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How bad did the pitch look
Turning to Friday, current form would suggest a ‘routine’ home win, but with Barnsley battling to escape the drop, it could be closer than expected.
That said, I think that the Swans will run out 3-1 winners
